Utah Historical Quarterly, Volume 38, Number 1-4, 1970

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UTAH STATE HISTORICAL SOCIETY

BOARD O F STATE H I S T O R Y Division of Department of Development Services M I L T O N c. ABRAMS, L o g a n , 1973

President DELLO G. DAYTON, O g d e n , 1971

Vice

President

C H A R L E S s. PETERSON,, Salt L a k e City

Secretary DEAN R. B R I M H A L L , F r u i t a , 1973 M R S . J U A N I T A B R O O K S , St. G e o r g e , 1973

J A C K GOODMAN, Salt L a k e City, 1973 M R S . A. c. J E N S E N , S a n d y , 1971 THERON L U K E , PrOVO, 1 9 7 1 CLYDE L . M I L L E R , S e c r e t a r y of S t a t e

Ex

officio

H O W A R D c. P R I C E , J R . , Price, 1971 MRS. ELIZABETH SKANCHY, M i d v a l e , 1 9 7 3 M R S . NAOMI W O O L L E Y , Salt L a k e City, 1971

ADVISORY BOARD O F E D I T O R S THOMAS G. ALEXANDER, PrOVO S. GEORGE ELLSWORTH,

Logan

M R S . H E L E N z. P A P A N I K O L A S , S a l t L a k e City LAMAR P E T E R S E N , Salt L a k e City

M R S . PEARL J A C O B S O N , Richfield

HAROLD S C H I N D L E R , Salt L a k e C i t y

DAVID E . M I L L E R , Salt L a k e C i t y

JEROME STOFFEL, Logan

ADMINISTRATION C H A R L E S s. P E T E R S O N , D i r e c t o r J O H N J A M E S , J R . , Librarian

T h e U t a h State Historical Society is a n organization devoted to the collection, preservation, a n d publication of U t a h a n d related history. I t was organized by publicspirited U t a h n s in 1897 for this purpose. I n fulfillment of its objectives, t h e Society p u b lishes t h e Utah Historical Quarterly, which is distributed to its members with payment of a $5.00 a n n u a l membership fee. T h e Society also maintains a specialized research library of books, pamphlets, photographs, periodicals, microfilms, newspapers, maps, a n d manuscripts. M a n y of these items have come to t h e library as gifts. Donations are encouraged, for only through such means can the U t a h State Historical Society live u p to its responsibility of preserving t h e record of U t a h ' s past.

MARGERY w . W A R D , Associate E d i t o r IRIS S C O T T , Business M a n a g e r

T h e primary purpose of t h e Quarterly is t h e publication of manuscripts, photographs, a n d documents which relate o r give a new interpretation to U t a h ' s unique story. Contributions of writers are solicited for t h e consideration of t h e editor. However, t h e editor assumes n o responsibility for t h e return of manscripts unaccompanied by r e turn postage. Manuscripts a n d material for publications should b e sent to the editor. T h e U t a h State Historical Society does not assume responsibility for statements of fact or opinions expressed by contributors. T h e Utah Historical Quarterly is entered as second-class postage, p a i d a t Salt Lake City, U t a h . Copyright 1970, U t a h State Historical Society, 603 East South T e m p l e Street, Salt Lake City, U t a h 84102.


HISTORICAL

QUARTERLY

W I N T E R 1970 / V O L U M E 38 / N U M B E R 1

Contents W O M E N AS A F O R C E I N T H E H I S T O R Y O F U T A H BY LEONARD

J . ARRINGTON

3

WOMAN SUFFRAGE IN WESTERN AMERICA BY T . A. L A R S O N

7

AN EXPERIMENT IN PROGRESSIVE LEGISLATION: T H E G R A N T I N G O F W O M A N S U F F R A G E I N U T A H I N 1870 BY T H O M A S

G. ALEXANDER

GENTLE PERSUADERS:

20

UTAH'S FIRST WOMEN

LEGISLATORS

BY J E A N B I C K M O R E W H I T E

31

MAGEROU, T H E GREEK MIDWIFE BY

HELEN

ZEESE

PAPANIKOLAS

50

AN E X A M P L E O F W O M E N I N P O L I T I C S BY

MARY

W . HOWARD

61

UTAH'S LEADING LADIES O F T H E ARTS BY

RAYE

PRICE

65

REVIEWS AND PUBLICATIONS

86 EDITOR ASSOCIATE EDITOR

C H A R L E S S. P E T E R S O N M a r g e r y W. W a r d

T H E C O V E R Susa Young Gates — author of a dozen books, founder of many regional and national women's organizations, leader in the National and International Councils of Women, editor, poetess, temple worker, musician, and woman suffragist — as a delegate to the Victory Suffrage Convention in Chicago in 1920. On the back cover is Sarah M. Kimball (seated) and Emily Richards and Phoebe Beatie — all active woman's rights advocates. Mrs. Kimball was the first president of the Utah Suffrage Association and an honorary vice-president of the National American Suffrage Association. Photographs from the Widtsoe Family Collection, Utah State Historical Society.


Books Reviewed

CAUGHEY, J O H N WALTON, The American West: Frontier & Region, eds., Norris Hundley, Jr., and John A. Schutz, BY DONALD R.

MOORMAN

86

ROSS, MARVIN C , The West of Alfred Jacob Miller (1837) from the Notes and Water Colors in The Walters Art Gallery with an account of the artist, BY K E I T H E. M O N T A G U E

87

UTLEY, ROBERT M., Frontiersmen in Blue: The United States Army and the Indian, 1848-1865, BY H O W A R D R. LAMAR

88

ROHRBAUGH, MALCOLM, The Land Office Business: The Settlement and Administration of American Public Lands, 1789-1837, BY W . D. A E S C H B A C H E R

90

HAFEN, ANN WOODBURY, Campftre Frontier: Historical Stories and Poems of the Old West, BY D O R O T H Y Z . M O R T E N S E N

90

COMBS, BARRY B., Westward to Promontory: Building the Union Pacific across the plains and mountains. A pictorial documentary, BY GERALD D. N A S H

91

STEGNER, WALLACE, The Sound of Mountain Water, BY LEVI S. P E T E R S O N

92

KRAUS, GEORGE, High Road to Promontory: Building the Central Pacific (now the Southern Pacific) across the High Sierra, BY C. A. REEDER., J R

93


Women as a Force in the History of Utah BY LEONARD J . ARRINGTON GUEST EDITOR

T

HREE WOMEN CAME with the advance company of Mormon pioneers to the Salt Lake Valley in July 1847. An additional sixty women marched with the Mormon Battalion from Fort Leavenworth, Kansas, to Santa Fe, New Mexico, and spent the winter of 1846-47 at Pueblo, Colorado, before entering the Salt Lake Valley just a few days behind the advance company. They were accompanied by twenty women who had migrated from Mississippi and Illinois and wintered with the Battalion women at Pueblo. Before the end of July 1847, there were almost as many women in Utah as there were men — a fact which set Utah apart from most

Dr. Arrington, professor of economics at Utah State University, has contributed numerous articles to the Quarterly in the past. The editors of the Quarterly are grateful to Dr. Arrington, a Fellow of the Utah State Historical Society, for his help in arranging for this special issue.


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Utah Historical

Quarterly

western territories. In the companies which subsequently migrated from the midwestern and eastern United States and from Europe, there were approximately as many women as there were men. The "different world of Utah" began with a partnership of men and women, and that pattern has continued to characterize the "family state" of Utah. One is tempted to suggest that the process of settlement placed a heavier burden on the women than on the men. Often away on "missions" for their church and other assignments, the men left the women home to milk the cows, plant the crops, and care for the children. A reading of the diaries kept by Utah's pioneer women suggests that, in many instances, women provided most of the support of their growing families by producing food and clothing, and, in some instances, even built the family dwelling places. If it is true, as many writers have asserted, that Utah farmers were among the best in American history, the credit is often due to the women who did much of the farming. If it is also true that "Utah's best crop" was its children, then the credit, again, belongs largely to the women who supported, nourished, and educated them. Herodotus included women in his history, as did Tacitus and other ancient writers of history. Not really a subjected sex in the conventional sense, women in every culture have played important roles in their struggles for liberty, their endeavors to improve the human lot, and their strivings for perfection in the fields of religion and art. The same can be said of the women of Utah. Utah's women were the first in the nation to exercise the right of suffrage in voting for city, county, and territorial officers. Utah women were among the first to serve as jurors, mayors, and state legislators. Utah women played a prominent role in the livestock industry, in communications, and in the creation of literary symbols. In the last half of the nineteenth century, Utah probably possessed the largest number of midwives and women doctors in the United States. Utah women founded the first "permanent" magazine for women west of the Mississippi River, pioneered the operation of telegraph offices, and led out in the efforts to improve the social and economic status of the Indians. It is fitting that the Utah State Historical Society should celebrate the contributions of women in this special issue of the Quarterly, timed for distribution during the month which marks the centennial of women suffrage in Utah. It is also fitting that three of the essays are by skilled Utah women writers. While the coming of woman suffrage is told by


Women as a Force in Utah History

5

T. A. Larson, president-elect of the Western History Association, and Thomas G. Alexander, a member of the Board of Editors of the Utah State Historical Society, the remaining essays are by Jean Bickmore White, Raye Price, and Helen Zeese Papanikolas, all of whom, in addition to rearing families, have played an active role in the cultural, educational, and political life of modern Utah. Every student of Utah history has his own favorite candidate for the most forceful woman in Utah's history. Some will choose the refined and sensitive Eliza R. Snow — poetess, Relief Society president, and leader in many women's causes. Others may prefer the brilliant and stately Emmeline B. Wells — editor of the Woman's Exponent for forty years and a founder of Utah's Republican party. Still others may select the loving and lovable Susanna Bransford Emery Holmes Delitch Engalitcheff — Utah's silver queen, famous hostess, patron of the arts, and philanthropist. Some may favor a woman of today — a political leader, a teacher, a business woman, an artist, or a dispenser of charity. This writer's favorite is Susa Young Gates. Author of a dozen books of merit, both fiction and non-fiction; founder of many regional and national women's organizations, including the Daughters of Utah Pioneers; a leader in the National and International Councils of Women; an editor, poet, temple worker, musician, and woman suffragist, Susa Young Gates was also the mother of thirteen children! Let her "Notes for the Day's Work" for a single day in 1895 illustrate the many concerns and contributions, both large and small, of Utah's women: 1 Notes for the Day's Work: Provo, Utah, August 19, 1895 Go down cellar with Emma Lucy [later, world famous coloratura soprano] and show her how to clean it. Go to Aunt Corneel's and take her to Eikens and get hers and my fruit. Darn Dan's stockings. Boil over the bottle of spoiled fruit. Practice on my bycycle. Write down plan of altering the house which came to me in the night. Clean my office. Answer Leah's, Sterling's, Sis. Taylor's, and Mrs. Grey's letters, and Carlos's. Prepare talk on "Women and Literature" and go to the [Brigham Young] Academy's opening exercises at 10 o'clock. Talk to Aretta Young about her story. Write to Pres. Joseph F. Smith, Pres. George Q. Cannon, Apostle Franklin D. Richards, and Elder B. H. Roberts about writing for Young Woman's Journal. Also write Mrs. M. E. Potter and Marie D. 1

T h e note is in the "Susa Young Gates" folder in the Manuscript Archives of the Brigham Young University Library, Provo, U t a h . I have taken a few liberties with the wording and order of the original.


Utah Historical Quarterly Write a n d t h a n k Carol for her lovely gift. Get the cloth for D a n ' s pants a n d boys' clothes a n d send them to the tailor. Finish the last chapter of " J o h n Stevens' C o u r t s h i p " for The Contributor. Sketch out editorials for Young Woman's Journal. W a s h m y head. Get the kitchen carpet and have the girl a n d D a n p u t it down. Get cot a n d crib from store. Also washstand and glass and wardrobe. Get vegetables a n d fruit for dinner. T a k e my bycycle dress over to Polly a n d have it fixed. T a k e clothes to the Relief Society. Get consecrated oil. Bless Cecil [B. Cecil Gates, later director of the M o r m o n Tabernacle Choir] to do his chores well. Administer to baby Franklin [later an outstanding figure in the early days of radio].

EQUAL

RIGHTS

N o w the voice of w o m a n k i n d is startling all the world; W o m a n must have equal rights with m a n . Everywhere beneath the sun her b a n n e r is unfurled, W o m a n must have equal rights with m a n . We b u t ask for freedom and the right to live and be, W h a t we are designed in God's great p l a n ; And we're sure all thinking men will very shortly see, W o m a n must have equal rights with m a n . We b u t ask for freedom and the right to live and be W h a t we are designed in God's great p l a n ; And we're sure all thinking men will very shortly see W o m a n must have equal rights with m a n . Should it be that in the land o'er which our standard waves And our eagle soars so proud and free, Mothers, sisters, daughters should all be held as slaves, Should they have to beg for liberty? We must pay our taxes, and the laws we must obey. And it's time an era now began W h e n in the elections we can also have a say — W o m a n should have equal rights with m a n . Come my sisters, let us rise and educate our minds, P u t aside our follies great and small; Work with heart and soul to help all womankind, G a t h e r round o u r standard one and all. D o not pause nor falter, but be valiant in the fight, And the flame of liberty we'll fan. Till it spreads o'er all the land, then hail the time of right, W h e n w o m a n shall have equal rights with m a n . {Woman's

Exponent,

23 [October 15, 1894], 195.)


MM

•';•

*

Susan B. Anthony, national woman suffrage leader.

Woman Suffrage In Western America B Y T . A.

LARSON


X HE ADOPTION OF WOMAN SUFFRAGE by popular vote in communities of any size was impossible before the 1890's. A small number of woman's rights advocates, male and female, had been campaigning since the Seneca Falls, New York, convention of 1848, but the masses were unmoved. Horace Greeley was probably right when he said in 1867 that at least three-fourths of the women of New York State "do not choose to vote." More than twenty years later the California suffragist Clara S. Foltz could still say "O, how much I do wish we could rally the women to the necessity of doing something for their own cause. . . . 'The women don't want to vote' . . . is the 'stunner' that we friends of the cause have to meet at every hand. . . .,n A few years later, in 1902, Susan B. Anthony and Ida Husted Harper wrote "In the indifference, the inertia, the apathy of women lies the greatest obstacle to their enfranchisement."2 Mary Wollstonecraft as early as 1792 had pointed to the need for women to have educational opportunities comparable to those for men, but broadened opportunities came very slowly in the nineteenth century. It was impossible to get rank and file women interested in voting until more of them had been educated up to it. Most male voters could not be expected to favor female suffrage until more women had become interested, and their interest would not develop without prolonged education and agitation. Pioneering suffragists encountered scathing ridicule. Their pleas for justice and equality evoked arguments that sound strange today but evidently were plausible to most of their contemporaries. Typical objections to woman suffrage included these: woman's place is in the home; most women do not want the vote; women are already represented; only bad and ignorant women would vote; there is no precedent; it is contrary to the Bible; women who lack the strength to enforce laws should not help make them; if women vote, they must fight; there are too many voters already; it will only double the vote, without changing the result, since women will vote as their husbands do; if they do not vote with their husbands, there will be domestic discord.3 Dr. Larson is William Robertson Coe Professor of American Studies at the University of Wyoming. H e served as head of the History D e p a r t m e n t at the University of Wyoming, 19481968. H e is the author or editor of several books and is presently working on a book-length manuscript dealing with woman suffrage in western America. 1

Manuscript H M 10621, I d a H . Harper Collection (Henry E. Huntington Library)

2

Susan B. Anthony and I d a Husted Harper, eds., The ester, New York, 1902), I V , xxiv. 3

The Woman's

History

Journal, X X V I (No. 36, September 7, 1895), 284.

of Woman

.


Woman Suffrage in Western America

9

Some suffragists thought it best to work for an amendment to the United States Constitution, which would require a two-thirds vote of both houses of Congress and approval of the legislatures of three-fourths of the states. Not until 1919, however, could they get Congress to submit the proposal to the states. Other suffragists, considering it impossible to secure passage of a national amendment, preferred to spend their energies in campaigns for amendments to state constitutions. But amending a state constitution, which required passage by both houses of the legislature and then approval by popular vote, was not much easier than amending the U.S. Constitution. In Kansas, where conditions appeared to be as favorable as anywhere in the country, the legislature submitted a woman suffrage amendment to the people in 1867, but it was rejected by a vote of more than two to one. In other states the legislatures regularly refused to submit such an amendment to the people. In exceptional cases — Michigan in 1874, Colorado in 1877, Nebraska in 1882, Oregon in 1884, Rhode Island in 1886, Washington in 1889, and South Dakota in 1890 — the legislatures did submit the amendment, but the voters uniformly rejected it. Not until 1893, in Colorado, could the suffragists win a statewide election. In the territories, however, woman suffrage could be adopted without a popular vote, and, indeed, woman suffrage bills came close to being passed by the legislatures of Washington and Nebraska territories in 1854 and 1856, respectively. A simple majority, either in Congress or in a territorial legislature, with the approval of the executive in each case, was all that was necessary. The New York Times, December 17, 1867, proposed in an editorial that woman suffrage be tried in Utah Territory, presumably by act of Congress. The Times thought that if women had the vote in Utah they might outlaw polygamy and thereby please many people in the East. A year later, on December 14, 1868, George Washington Julian, Republican congressman from Indiana, introduced a bill to give women the right to vote in all the territories.4 In the following February, a spokesman for "The Universal Franchise Association," Professor J. K. H. Willcox, in testimony before the House Committee on Territories said that Julian's bill, if passed, would attract women to the West from the "overcrowded East" by "offering them greater security in person and property" and in so doing would lessen the unequal distribution of the sexes, raise wages, 4 For the text of this bill see Elizabeth Cady Stanton, Susan B. Anthony, and Matilda Joslyn Gage, eds., History of Woman Suffrage (Rochester, New York, 1887), I I , 325.


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Utah Historical Quarterly

reduce the amount of prostitution, and destroy polygamy in Utah. 5 This bill for establishing woman suffrage in all the territories died in committee, as did another Julian bill introduced March 15, 1869, which proposed to give women the right to vote in Utah Territory but not in other territories. By this time the New York Times had decided that the women of Utah would not vote against polygamy, and that moreover the people of Utah, male and female, would welcome an act of Congress extending suffrage to the women of that territory.6 The suggestion that woman suffrage might first be tried in the territories thus was dropped in Congress but not before it had received considerable publicity in 1867, 1868, and 1869. In view of the alluring prospects described by Professor Willcox before the House Committee on Territories it is not surprising that the idea was picked up by legislators in six western territories in 1869 or 1870. Four of them — Colorado, Dakota, Idaho, and New Mexico—failed to adopt bills that were introduced, but two others, Wyoming and Utah, gave their women the right to vote. Dakota missed its golden opportunity for fame when its legislature failed by just one vote to pass a woman suffrage bill in January 1869. Next to consider such action was the very first legislature in the new territory of Wyoming, and it capitalized on the opportunity which Dakota had let slip through its hands. Wyoming enacted woman suffrage, including the right to hold office, December 10, 1869. Two months later, February 12, 1870, Utah Territory gave women the right to vote but not to hold office. Utah women actually voted on two occasions before Wyoming women could vote in September 1870.7 Romantics have imagined that western leadership in woman suffrage stemmed from chivalry and notions of equality and democracy rooted in the frontier environment. Others have associated western leadership with the Puritan ethic and with the Populist and Progressive movements.8 Pendleton Herring has written that "The struggle for woman suffrage was a long battle fought largely outside party lines and by the organized women themselves."9 Herring's generalization has some validity for the 5

B. H . Roberts, A Comprehensive History of the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints (Salt Lake City, 1930), V, 323-26. Roberts gives the Washington Chronicle, February 28, 1869, as his source. "New York Times, M a r c h 5, 1869, p. 6, and M a r c h 17, 1869, p. 6. T It would not be accurate, however, to say that women voted first in U t a h . Some women who owned property voted in New Jersey, 1776-1807, and school suffrage h a d been given to women in Kansas in 1861. 8 See particularly Aileen S. Kraditor, The Ideas of the Woman Suffrage Movement, 18901920 (New York, 1965), and Alan P. Grimes, The Puritan Ethic and Woman Suffrage (New York, 1967). 9 Pendleton Herring, Politics of Democracy (New York, 1940), 320,


Woman Suffrage in Western America

11

national story but for western territories more appropriate is this one offered by Alan P. Grimes: "In newly emerging societies, decidedly significant political actions may be the result largely of pure chance, coincidence, or a fortuitous combination of circumstances." 10 Accounts of what actually happened in Wyoming and Utah, and why, have been so confused that attempts to set the record straight are in order. The differences between Utah Territory and Wyoming Territory, and between their woman suffrage experiences, are so striking that separate treatment is appropriate. Dr. Thomas Alexander tells the Utah story in a separate article while the Wyoming story will be related here. The Wyoming territorial legislature which passed the woman suffrage bill in December 1869 was small — nine men in the upper house, twelve in the lower.11 Only one member had had any previous legislative experience. All members of both houses belonged to the Democratic party. Rather late in the session the president of the upper house gave notice that he would introduce a bill for woman's rights. Fifteen days later he introduced his bill and it passed the upper house by a vote of six to two with little debate. Vigorous opposition w^as encountered in the lower house where eventually a favorable vote of seven to four was obtained, after an amendment had been incorporated raising the voting age from eighteen to twenty-one. The upper house accepted the amendment, and the governor, a Republican, signed the bill after much soul searching. Remarkably, there was no suffrage society in the territory, and the legislature had received no suffrage petition. There had been, however, some discussion of woman suffrage in Cheyenne newspapers just before and during the legislative session, centering around two lectures by itinerant eastern suffragists, Anna Dickinson and Redelia Bates. Both of these young women were very attractive. Their personalities had greater impact than their messages, but undoubtedly they charmed their audiences, which included a number of legislators; and they may well have won a few votes for their cause. The man who introduced the bill was William H. Bright, age fortysix, a Virginian who had served in the Union Army as a major in the Office of the Chief Quartermaster in Washington, D. C , in 1864. After the war he became a special agent in the Post Office Department in Salt 10

Grimes, Puritan Ethic and Woman Suffrage, 53. T h e r e should have been thirteen instead of twelve in the lower house, but one m a n who was elected failed to appear. 11


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Lake City, and then in 1868 moved to South Pass City, Wyoming, where he opened a saloon. Bright h a d enjoyed little if any formal schooling. I n later life, when queried, he explained that he had introduced the suffrage bill because he thought it right and just and because he thought that if Negroes h a d the right to vote, as they did, women "like my wife and m o t h e r " should also have the franchise. "Bright is already immortal," judged the Cheyenne Leader, foremost newspaper of the territory, February 12, 1870. For twenty years after the event, contemporaries agreed t h a t Bright deserved major credit for placing Wyoming at the head of the woman suffrage parade, but thereafter he was almost forgotten as the claims of others came to the surface. 12 Bright's place as sponsor of the bill is a matter of public record, and his contemporaries gave him full credit. But what persuaded the other legislators to vote as they did? Unfortunately, the assembly journals, although they give motions and votes, do not record the debates. They indicate how men voted, but not why, and press coverage was disgracefully laconic. Nevertheless, a general summary statement which can be documented to a considerable extent runs as follows. William H . Bright, encouraged by Secretary of the Territory Edward M . Lee and probably others, introduced the bill mainly because he believed it right and just. A few other legislators recognized the merit of his argument from justice, but this was a minority opinion. 13 A majority vote in both houses was obtained by resort to economic and political arguments. M e n who were unmoved by the justice argument embraced the idea that to adopt woman suffrage would give the struggling territory, whose population was declining, much free advertising and would attract women who u p to that time h a d been in very short supply. T h e territory h a d only one thousand women over tw^enty-one, compared to six thousand men. As soon as the bill was approved by the governor, Cheyenne's leading newspaper noted editorially: " W e now expect at once quite an immigration of ladies to Wyoming. W e say to them all, come on. T h e r e is room for a great many here yet." Substantial contemporary evidence supports the opinion that desire for free advertising was of major importance. General E d w a r d M. Lee, secretary of the territory, judged free advertising to have been the most 12 For the story of Bright's acclaim among his contemporaries and his subsequent disinheritance, see T. A. Larson, History of Wyoming (Lincoln, Nebraska, 1965), 78-94. 13 T h e legislature, it should not be overlooked, had shown sympathy for woman's rights before the suffrage bill was introduced. It had passed a law to protect married women in their separate property, a n d had adopted a law barring discrimination in school teachers' pay on account of sex.


Woman Suffrage in Western America

13

important factor. He explained in an article which appeared in The Galaxy magazine, June 1872: T h e first Legislature, composed of elements c o m m o n in b o r d e r c o m m u n i ties, 1 4 assembled in the a u t u m n of 1869, a n d proceeded to e n a c t a code of laws, a m o n g which was a statute enfranchising w o m e n . T h e law in question was n o t a d o p t e d in obedience to public sentiment, b u t because t h e T e r r i t o r i a l lawgivers believed it would o p e r a t e as a "first-class advertisem e n t " ; t h a t their action in the premises would be telegraphed t h r o u g h o u t t h e civilized world, a n d public interest thereby aroused, resulting i n increased immigration a n d large accretions of capital to their n e w a n d comparatively u n k n o w n Territory. I a m sure t h a t u p to t h a t time n o t a score of suffrage disciples could be found within t h e T e r r i t o r i a l limits. E v e n the w o m e n themselves did n o t a p p e a r as petitioners . . . b u t t h e suffrage was conferred, as has been said, solely for advertising purposes. T h e Council originated a n d a d o p t e d t h e measure, believing t h a t t h e H o u s e of Representatives would disagree; b u t the last n a m e d body ultimately concurred, in anticipation of a n Executive veto.

It was Secretary Lee's responsibility to work closely with the legislature. His job gave him a better opportunity than anyone else had to understand why the legislature acted as it did. In the same year, 1872, in a suffrage address in Boston, Lee said: "The movement at first was commenced by certain public men as an advertising dodge for the Territory, and not at all as an earnest measure." 15 He said much the same in an address in Indianapolis.16 Three prominent citizens who were in Chey14 Vague descriptions like this one ("composed of elements common in border communities") have often been given for Wyoming's first legislature. These men were criticized particularly because they voted to increase their pay from $4.00 to $10.00 a day (the courts nullified the increase). More to the point are these details about the thirteen legislators who voted for woman suffrage: William H . Bright, who is described as a saloonkeeper, which he apparently was in 1869, was listed as a miner at South Pass City in the U . S . Census for Wyoming ( 1 8 7 0 ) , the principal source for d a t a about other legislators, below. Bright was credited with having real estate worth $100.00. By 1876 he had moved to Denver. Later he moved to Washington, D . C , where he died in 1912. J. C. Abney in 1870 was thirty-four, married, born in Kentucky, a livery-stable keeper in Cheyenne worth $1,500 in real estate and $8,000 in personal estate. William Herrick in 1870 was fifty, a bachelor, born in New York, a saloonkeeper at Sherman with a personal estate of $2,500. J. W. Menefee in 1870 was thirty-seven, a bachelor, born in Virginia, a miner at Atlantic City in South Pass, with real estate worth $1,000. Louis Miller in 1870 was twenty-nine, married, born in Prussia, a jeweler in Laramie worth $1,500 in real estate and $5,000 in personal estate. T. D . Murrin in 1870 was thirty-six, married, born in Ireland, a wholesale grocery merchant, worth $2,500 in real estate and $1,200 in personal estate. From other sources it is known that his principal "grocery" stock in trade was liquor. Nothing is known about five of the thirteen legislators who voted for woman suffrage. Their names do not appear on the Wyoming census rolls for 1870, which is not surprising considering t h e transient character of frontiersmen. O n e other whose name does not appear on the Wyoming census rolls for 1870 was Posey Wilson, a twenty-five-year-old bachelor, who later rose to some prominence as a Cheyenne banker. 15 The Woman's Journal, V (No. 14, April 4, 1874), 108. "Ibid., I I (No. 48, December 2, 1871), 380.


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enne or Laramie in 1869 made corroborating statements, apparently without any contradition from contemporaries. The Laramie editor James H. Hayford wrote in 1874: "We advocated [woman suffrage] in the first place merely for its novelty and for the attention it would attract to our new Territory." 17 He said this again and again. Associate justice of the Wyoming Supreme Court John W. Kingman, speaking before the Massachusetts legislature in 1876, said that some of the members voted for it thinking it would attract attention to the territory.18 Judge Kingman later wrote that among the arguments advanced for the bill, "The favorite . . . and by far the most effective, was this: it would prove a great advertisement, would make a great deal of talk, and attract attention to the legislature, and the territory, more effectually than anything else."19 Morton E. Post, who had been a grocer in Cheyenne in 1869 and later had served as delegate to Congress, recalled in 1886: "The right of suffrage was originally extended to women as a matter of advertisement for the Territory." 20

17

Ibid., V (No. 40, October 3, 1874), 318. Ibid., VII (No. 5, January 29, 1876), 36. 19 Stanton, Anthony, and Gage, History of Woman Suffrage, III, 730. 20 The Woman's Journal, XVII (No. 15, April 10, 1886), 113. 18

Woman Suffrage in 1896


Woman Suffrage in Western America

15

Coupled with the purpose to get free advertising was a desire to embarrass the governor. Although Secretary Lee in the quotation above stressed free advertising, he concluded by saying that the lower house concurred "in anticipation of an Executive veto." Republican Governor John A. Campbell, unlike Republican Secretary Lee, was at loggerheads with the Democratic legislators. They overrode some of his vetoes, only to lose to him in the courts. They despised him personally because, unlike themselves and Lee, he did not drink, gamble, or use tobacco. They had reason to believe that he was opposed to woman suffrage and would veto the bill.21 His veto would cause him to lose the esteem of a few Cheyenne ladies who often had feted the bachelor governor.22 During four days while the bill lay on his desk two of the territorial judges and two Cheyenne ladies urged him to discard his prejudices and turn the tables on his political enemies, and so he did by signing the bill. 21 T w o editors of The Woman's Journal interviewed Governor Campbell in February 1872 when he was honeymooning in Boston. They reported that he "had never regarded himself or been regarded by others prior to the passage of the bill as an advocate of woman's voting" and that " I t was generally supposed that he would veto the bill." The Woman's Journal, I I I (No. 6, February 10, 1872), 48. 22 Mrs. Esther Morris, Wyoming justice of the peace in 1870 who achieved widespread fame as the nation's first female judge, told a San Francisco reporter in 1872 that "the whole matter of the adoption of Woman Suffrage in the Territory was the result of a bitter feud between the existing political parties, and it was done in a moment of spite—not out of any regard for the movement, but rather as a bitter joke." The Woman's Journal (No. 10, M a r c h 9, 1872), 78-79.

Woman Suffrage in 1914


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T h e ardent Wyoming suffragist, Judge J o h n W. Kingman, a Harvard graduate of unquestionable integrity, in an address before the Massachusetts legislature in 1876 summarized the motivational pattern governing the voting of legislators on the suffrage bill as well as anyone can: "Some of the members urged it from conviction, others voted for it thinking it would attract attention to the Territory, others as a joke, and others in the expectation that the Governor would veto the measure." 2 3 While woman suffrage was instituted with remarkably little opposition in Wyoming and U t a h , never again would victories come so easily. Looking back over the long struggle which culminated in the Nineteenth Amendment in 1920, Carrie C h a p m a n Catt and Nettie Rogers Shuler ruefully concluded that " T h e better the campaign, the more certain that suffrage would be defeated at the polls." 24 Aileen Kraditor's explanation for this paradox is simply and accurately that "antisuffragism was essentially defensive." 25 T h e normal pattern of action and reaction appeared in Colorado in 1870. Among the six territories where woman suffrage was an issue in 1869 or 1870 only Colorado had extensive newspaper coverage, petitions, letters to the editors, and full-dress public debate in the legislature. As in Wyoming, partisan strife between a Republican governor, Edward M . McCook, and a Democratic majority in the assembly may well have affected the outcome. Governor McCook in his opening message recommended adoption of woman suffrage. By so doing he probably did his cause more h a r m than good since the majority Democrats generally rejected his leadership. W o m a n suffrage received more attention than any other subject in the session. After airing thoroughly most of the familiar arguments pro and con, the lower house rejected the prosposal, fifteen to ten after the upper house h a d voted for it, seven to six. 26 After the setback in Colorado, enthusiasm for suffrage extension in the West soon waned, the final excitement of 1870 centering in California where a newly organized state suffrage association collected more than 3,000 signatures on a petition and sent many representatives, both male and female, to Sacramento to offer a personal appeal which availed 23

Ibid., V I I (No. 5, J a n u a r y 29, 1876), 36. Carrie C h a p m a n C a t t and Nettie Rogers Shuler, Woman Suffrage and Politics: The Inner Story of the Suffrage Movement (New York, 1923), 130. This account of the suffrage movement was issued as a reprint by the University of Washington Press in 1969. 25 Kraditor, Ideas of the Woman Suffrage Movement, 14. 26 Colorado's experience is well told in Joseph G. Brown, The History of Equal Suffrage in Colorado, 1868-1898 (Denver, 1898) and Billie Barnes Jensen, " T h e Woman Suffrage Movement in Colorado" (master's thesis, University of Colorado, Boulder, 1955). 24


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17

nothing.27 In that same year, 1870, woman suffrage was under legislative consideration in most of the other states outside the South, but no state legislative body could be convinced. For the next thirteen years eastern suffragists, who knew all of the theoretical arguments and often elaborated on them in The Woman's Journal, in The Revolution (until it suspended publication in 1872), and on the lecture platform, had to turn to Wyoming or Utah for information about the practical working of woman suffrage. Despite the fact that many more women were involved in the Utah experiment, eastern suffragists gave more attention to woman suffrage in Wyoming because they considered the Utah experiment seriously compromised by theocracy and polygamy. Moreover, Wyoming gave women the right to hold office as well as to vote and soon had female jurors and a female justice of the peace. Wyoming, consequently, took the front position in the suffrage show window. For many years that territory got more free advertising than any of the legislators of 1869 reasonably could have anticipated. Mrs. Esther Morris, who served satisfactorily as justice of the peace in 1870, enjoyed much publicity. Likewise, female grand and petit jurors received well-deserved praise for their work in 1870 and 1871. Nevertheless, the Wyoming experiment was almost terminated in 1871. While friends of woman suffrage had been gratified by results, the Democrats who constituted a majority of the legislators in 1871 had had enough. They proposed repeal because the women had voted Republican and had indicated a desire to close saloons on Sunday. A few Republicans, however, by the margin of one vote, kept the Democrats from overriding Governor John A. Campbell's veto of the repeal measure. Thereafter, leading citizens of the territory who had been opposed or skeptical generally became converts. It dawned on them that stable, law-abiding, family men who wanted to put down roots and civilize the territory needed the votes of their wives to prevail against transient bachelors who made up the majority of male voters. After 1871, as more and more citizens recognized its benefits, woman suffrage was never in jeopardy. 28 Testimonials from Wyoming governors, judges, newspaper editors, and clergymen were quoted in the tracts distributed in every woman suffrage campaign for the next forty years. Up-to-date testimonials were solicited on several occasions when unfavorable reports had ap27 The Woman's Journal, I (No. 7, February 19, 1870), 49, 50, and I (No. 14, April 9, 1870), 109. 28 Alan P. Grimes discusses at length the place of women voters as "civilizers of Wyoming" in his book The Puritan Ethic and Woman Suffrage.


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peared in the eastern press. In time it became evident to intelligent observers, most of whom had never expected a miraculous transformation of society, that the experiment was a modest success. Meanwhile, opponents wrote less about the evils of woman suffrage and more about the absence of any good results. To be sure, there was chronic disappointment for those who expected women voters to win influence in nominating conventions, be elected to office, eliminate gambling and prostitution, or bring prohibition. And those who thought that suffrage would attract women to the territory were disabused of that notion. Economic considerations, as usual, determined migration decisions. Suffragists in the East resented suggestions that they should move to Wyoming to get the vote, preferring as a rule to fight for their rights where they were. After many discouragements suffragists were heartened by victory in 1883 in Washington Territory. Probably many of them had shared, more or less privately, the doubts which Colonel T. W. Higginson, one of the editors of The Woman's Journal, now expressed: I have never felt any sense of security as to Woman Suffrage as long as it was only practiced in two territories of the Union, the one having a very exceptional population and the other a very small one. My utmost hope was that this provision would be maintained in the territories until their example should lead some State to adopt it. That hope is now strengthened, since a third territory has joined the list.29

Four years later, however, in 1887, the women of Utah and Washington lost the franchise, through an act of Congress (Edmunds-Tucker Act) based on opposition to polygamy in Utah, and through a court decision based on partisan politics and other factors in Washington. "Rum did it," said some observers in Washington, where women by their votes for prohibition had antagonized the powerful liquor interests. Suffragists, it should be noted, often differed in the West, as in the East, over tactics. For instance, Mrs. Abigail Scott Duniway, the West's outstanding suffragist, often recommended what she called a "still hunt." She urged her associates in Oregon, Washington, and Idaho to win over legislators by quiet persuasion rather than by noisy rallies. She was not always consistent. A great orator, she made many speeches throughout the Northwest. Also she aggressively prompted woman suffrage in her magazine, The New Northwest. In 1886 she warned women in Washington that they would lose the vote if they persisted in their drive for prohibition. On other occasions she told eastern suffrage leaders to stay home or watch from the sidelines during western campaigns. 29

The Woman's Journal, XIV (No. 48, December 1, 1883), 373.


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In 1890, the long-hoped-for breakthrough in a state came when Wyoming entered the Union with woman suffrage in its constitution. Three neighboring states soon followed, Colorado in 1893, Utah and Idaho in 1896. This cluster of victories in contiguous states in the Rocky Mountain West caused great jubilation in suffrage circles. With renewed hope and drive, suffragists continued their pursuit of victories in other states. Nationally a favorable development had occurred in 1890 with the merger of the two great suffrage organizations under the name National American Woman Suffrage Association. Nevertheless, the suffragists suffered through another long period of frustration until they won Washington in 1910 and California in 1911. Success in California was particularly exciting because it was the first populous state to enter the fold. As some observers predicted, victory in California gave special impetus to the suffrage movement throughout the country. The successful California campaign of 1911 evokes wonder and admiration. What a contrast there was between the coming of woman suffrage to Wyoming and Utah in 1869 and 1870, with nothing that can be called a campaign, and the splendid, many-sided effort in California in 1911. After forty years of disappointments and defeats the California suffragists had combined new devices with old ones. They used parades, lobbying, petitions, "Votes-For-Women" clubs, organized letter writing, gifted speakers, endorsements, special trains, auto tours, rallies, teas, leaflets in English and in foreign languages, suffrage songs, propaganda postcards, limericks, posters, pins, buttons, pennants, billboards, and newspaper publicity.30 Other state victories followed quickly, first in the West, then in the Middle West and East. By 1914, all states from the Rocky Mountains on west, except for New Mexico, had full woman suffrage, while east of the Rockies only Kansas had accepted the inevitable. Thereafter, a combination of factors — education, agitation, organization, momentum, and war-—brought success in additional states and finally, in 1920, a great national victory in the form of the Nineteenth Amendment. Unquestionably, western territories and states had led in the suffrage parade. Many western people have assumed that the "frontier spirit" had something to do with it. With respect to some phases of the suffrage movement they may be right, but, as in territorial Wyoming and Utah, other forces, too, must be taken into account. 30 T h e Susan B. Anthony Memorial Collections in the Henry E. Huntington Library are particularly rich in California woman suffrage materials.


An Experiment In Progressive Legislation: The Granting of Woman Suffrage In Utah In 1870

BY T H O M A S

G.

ALEXANDER

X N 1869 AND 1870, as the nation agonized over the adoption of the Fifteenth Amendment and universal manhood suffrage, the people of Utah considered a suffrage question which was so far ahead of its time that the nation did not adopt it until 1920. At that time these mountain westerners debated universal adult suffrage, female suffrage as it was then called, or woman suffrage as it is generally called today. 1 Dr. Alexander, associate professor of history at Brigham Young University, was the 1969 recipient of the U t a h State Historical Society Morris S. Rosenblatt Award for his article "John Wesley Powell, T h e Irrigation Survey, and the I n a u g u r a t i o n of the Second Phase of Irrigation Development in U t a h , " which was selected as the best article of the year appearing in the Utah Historical Quarterly. Dr. Alexander expresses appreciation to Professor Leonard J. Arrington for his help in securing sources used in this present article. 1 General treatments of w o m a n suffrage will be found in Carrie C h a p m a n Catt and Nettie Rogers Shuler, Woman Suffrage and Politics: The Inner Sfory of the Suffrage Movement (New York, 1926) ; T h e National American W o m a n Suffrage Association, Victory: How Women Won It; A Centennial Symposium, 1840-1940 (New York, 1940) ; and K a t e B. Carter, comp., Woman Suffrage in the West ([Salt Lake City], 1943).


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Utah was not the first state or territory to adopt this measure. 2 New Jersey had allowed women to vote from 1790 to 1807 and various other states had in the meantime allowed the suffrage to women for various reasons, often because they happened to be property owners. Also, in the State of Deseret prior to the organization of Utah Territory, women voted in civil elections just as they had always voted on ecclesiastical matters in the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints or Mormon church. The first modern territory to adopt universal adult suffrage was Wyoming Territory whose governor, John A. Campbell, signed a law providing for woman suffrage on December 10, 1869. The reasons for Wyoming's action are discussed in an article in this issue by Dr. T. A. Larson, but the adoption of suffrage in Wyoming Territory where men outnumbered women by a ratio of six to one could not have had the impact it did in Utah where the numbers were approximately equal. Nineteenth century Utah appeared to non-Mormons or Gentiles, as they were called in the Mormon territory, to be a retrograde and barbarian place only slightly more advanced than the Moslem lands of the Near East, with which it was often compared. 3 The people of Utah, however, considered themselves to be socially enlightened, and by the standards which obtained in the United States when universal suffrage was adopted they appear so today. Surrounded by a roaring frontier country which emphasized the acquisitive, individualistic, and violent, Mormons in 1869 and 1870 talked about cooperation, self-sacrifice, and a sense of community. In April 1869, Brigham Young announced a cooperative movement which, for the good of the people, would "shut off," many businessmen so the community could be benefited by central purchasing, manufacturing, and marketing.4 2 Susa Young Gates, "History, Chapter, W o m a n Suffrage in U t a h " (typescript, Susa Young Gates Miscellaneous File in the Widtsoe Collection, U t a h State Historical Society). (Hereafter this file will be cited as Gates File, U S H S ) . R a l p h Lorenzo Jack, " W o m a n Suffrage in U t a h as an Issue in the M o r m o n and N o n - M o r m o n Press of the Territory, 1870-1887" (master's thesis, Brigham Young University, 1954), 2 2 ; B. H. Roberts, A Comprehensive History of the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints, Century I (6 vols., Salt Lake City, 1930), V, 3 2 6 ; T. A. Larson, History of Wyoming (Lincoln, Nebraska, 1965), 78-84. Roberts states wrongly that Campbell vetoed the bill. 3 Leonard J. Arrington and J o n H a u p t , "Intollerable Zion: T h e Image of Mormonism in Nineteenth Century American Literature," Western Humanities Review, X X I I (Summer, 1968), 243-60. Stanley S. Ivins, "Notes on M o r m o n Polygamy," Utah Historical Quarterly, 34 (Fall, 1967), 309-21. 4 Leonard J. Arrington, Great Basin Kingdom: An Economic History of the Latter-day Saints, 1830-1900 (Cambridge, 1958), 305.


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In the same vein George Q. Cannon, editor of the Deseret News and a counselor to President Young, emphasized the need to consider the good of the community and not simply individual advantage in other matters. In an editorial he lamented the plight of the American workingman and the problems caused by the rapid centralization of weath, in the h a n d s of t h e very few in this country [which] is unparalleled, a n d t h e unprincipled use of t h e p o w e r t h u s acquired, as witnessed d u r i n g the recent Wall Street gambling operations [which] c a n n o t b u t cause wide spread distress. [This shows t h a t ] here as elsewhere, w h e n p o w e r a n d wealth are acquired a n d exercised by the few w h o are not guided by principle, they a r e not used pro bono publico, b u t are m a d e to answer private interests a n d to subserve selfish ends. 5

Like the later Progressives, Cannon was convinced that man was basically good and that the evil he did grew from environmental influences. M a n ' s inclination to do evil, is, in most instances, the result of habits which grow o u t of defective a n d i m p r o p e r education a n d training. W h e n m e n a r e rightly trained, they will be u n a b l e to perceive a single a d v a n t a g e which they c a n gain by doing wrong. If society were properly organized, there would be n o t h i n g that m e n could legitimately desire which they could not obtain by doing right, a n d , of course, u n d e r such circumstances, there would be no t e m p t a t i o n to do wrong.

Unlike many in his own time, Cannon, an immigrant himself, opposed the movement for immigration restriction, even the restriction upon the immigration of orientals.6 In another editorial, he lauded the efforts to bring women into the promotion of the cooperative and reform movements. W i t h w o m e n to aid in the great cause of reform, w h a t wonderful changes c a n be effected! W i t h o u t her aid h o w slow the progress! Give her responsibility, a n d she will prove t h a t she is capable of great things; but deprive h e r of opportunities, m a k e a doll of her, leave her n o t h i n g to occupy h e r m i n d b u t the reading of novels, gossip, the fashions a n d all the frivolity of this frivolous age, a n d her influence is lost, a n d instead of being a help m e e t to m a n , as originally intended, she becomes a d r a g a n d a n e n c u m b r a n c e . Such w o m e n m a y answer in other places a n d a m o n g other p e o p l e ; b u t they would be out of place here. 7

Even polygamy, or plural marriage as Mormons preferred to call it, which was viewed as retrograde and uncivilized by Gentiles, was seen as a 5 Deseret News Weekly (Salt Lake City), February 10, 1869 (hereafter cited as DNW with the date). e Ibid., June 2 and 30, 1869. "Ibid., May 26, 1869,


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George Q. Cannon (18271901), first counselor to Presidents John Taylor, Wilford Woodruff, and Lorenzo Snow successively, held very progressive views which included granting suffrage to women. Photograph from the Utah State Historical Society.

Emmeline B. Wells (18281921), pronounced suffragist, gave service to organizing both state and national associations. She was also a poetess, journalist, editor of the Woman's Exponent for forty years, and a founder of Utah's Republican party. Photograph from the Utah State Historical Society.

method of reforming society and eradicating social evils by contemporary Mormons. Church leaders saw this reform as a way of freeing women from slavery to the lusts of men and making them honored wives and mothers with homes of their own and social position. By entering polygamy women achieved a place in a society where the family formed the basic social unit. There is some evidence that Mormon women shared this view because so many of those who were active in the campaign for woman's rights were plural wives of prominent Utah citizens. Rather than simply tacitly accepting polygamy as their burden, these women used their social position to promote a better life for others in society.8 8

courses

Ibid., February 16, 1870. Speech of George Q . Cannon, July 7, 1878, in Journal of Dis(26 vols., Liverpool, England, 1854-1886), X X , 36-37; Susa Young Gates and Leah


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It is hardly surprising, then, that the predominant sentiment of the community favored woman suffrage as soon as it was proposed. Representative George W. Julian of Indiana introduced a bill entitled: "A Bill to Discourage Polygamy in Utah" which simply granted women the right to vote. Professor J. K. H. Willcox of the Universal Franchise Association in argument before the House Committee on Territories said that if the experiment succeeded in Utah it could be extended elsewhere. By this means, he was certain, "polygamy would be destroyed." Delegate William H. Hooper said that he favored the bill and opined that the leading citizens of Utah would also. The bill never came to a vote.9 As the time for the legislative session of 1870 neared, the press of Utah demonstrated considerable interest in the proposal. The Utah Magazine through its editor E. L. T. Harrison and his associate Edward W. Tullidge published several articles supporting the idea. Harrison said that suffrage ought to be granted to women because it was inevitable in the progression of things. Tullidge argued that: The nation which does not assign to women a very high part to play not only in the home circle but also in all the vital concerns of humanity, is barbaric in its notions and estate. True civilization had not yet reached that nation. 10

A woman correspondant of the magazine took the position that women have the talent to occupy any professional position which men could hold and justified the right to vote by the Mormon doctrine of free agency. She was of the opinion that women's votes would not change things much because, just as in congregational voting, women would vote pretty much the same as men. She said, however, that they had the right to express themselves just the same. Harrison was sympathetic with the view.11 Not until the legislature had already passed the act providing for woman suffrage did church authorities comment editorially on the proviD . Widtsoe, Women of the "Mormon" Church (Jackson County, Missouri, 1928) ; and Edward W. Tullidge, The Women of Mormondom (New York, 1877). I n a conversation with the author, Leonard J. Arrington pointed out that so many polygamous wives could be freed for community service because of their position and other wives who could assist them by caring for children and taking other household duties. See also Ivins, "Notes on M o r m o n Polygamy" U.H.Q., 34, 309-21. 9 DNW, M a r c h 24, 1869; Jack, " W o m a n Suffrage in U t a h , " 15-18; Roberts, Comprehensive History, V, 324; Edward W. Tullidge, History of Salt Lake City (Salt Lake City, 1886), 435. " " W o m e n ' s Sphere in U t a h , " The Utah Magazine, I I (February 13, 1 8 6 9 ) , 2 5 2 ; E. W. Tullidge, " W o m a n and H e r Sphere," ibid., I l l ( J u n e 26, 1869), 119. " "A U t a h Woman's Thoughts on Womanly Employments, Marriage, etc.," The Utah Magazine, I I I (July 3 1 , 1869), 199; bee also "Talk About Woman's Wages," ibid., 203.


Woman Suffrage in Utah

25

sion, but their approval seems to have been unanimous. President Cannon wrote in the Deseret News that the right of suffrage ought to be granted to all who can exercise it intelligently. He took the view that neither men nor women could exercise their full rights while "the other labors under disability, however limited." He was convinced that women would do more to promote "legislation of such a character as would tend more to diminish prostitution and the various social evils which overwhelm society than anything hitherto devised under universal male suffrage."12 Franklin D. Richards in his newly established Ogden Junction took a similar tack and emphasized Mormon unity on social and political questions. "Mormonism," he said, "seeks to provide for, educate and make useful to the State the whole feminine portion of the race." He was quick to point out, however, that women ought not be raised "above the level of man to be his governor, guide or lawgiver," or invested "with powers for which nature has not fitted her." 13 It is not at all surprising, given the sentiment in favor of the move, that the legislature considered the proposal early in 1870.14 On January 27, 1870, Representative Abram Hatch of Wasatch County moved that the Committee on Elections be instructed to inquire into the propriety of passing a bill granting the suffrage to women. That afternoon, under the chairmanship of Representative John C. Wright of Box Elder County, the Committee of the Whole took up Hatch's motion and asked the Committee on Elections to consider the matter further. On February 2, Wright reported that the Committee on Elections recommended passage of the measure. The report pointed out that the Organic Act granted suffrage to every free white male inhabitant over twenty-one years of age and limited the right to hold office to citizens of the United States. The legislature appeared to have the right to extend the suffrage to any other group it wished. It recommended, also that the suffrage be extended to women who were wives or daughters of citizens, because, the report said, a federal act of April 14, 1802, had granted citizenship to widows and children of aliens who had received their first papers. "According to this," the committee reasoned, "we should natural^DNW, J a n u a r y 22, 1870. See also Mormon Tribune, (Salt Lake C i t y ) , J a n u a r y 22, 1870, for similar comments by a non-Mormon. 13 Ogden Junction, February 9, 1870. 14 T h e consideration in the legislature is based upon U t a h Territory, Legislature, Minutes of the U t a h Territorial Legislature, M S , Manuscript Section, File Box on U t a h Territory, Legislature ( C h u r c h of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints Historian's Library, Salt Lake C i t y ) , xerox copy supplied by Leonard J. Arrington; DNW, February 16, 1870.


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ly infer that if the widow and children of an alien who had not perfected his citizenship, became citizens, that the wife of a citizen became a citizen by being united in marriage to her husband." By exercising the franchise, the committee report continued, women would be placed "in a position to protect their own rights by an appeal to the ballot box which we think they are quite as competent to use as uneducated foreigners, the negro or Chinese." The committee also recommended that women be ineligible to hold high judicial, legislative, or executive offices, though they might be allowed to hold minor positions. On the basis of this recommendation, Peter Maughan of Cache County, chairman of the House Committee on Elections reported back a bill on February 5, 1870. The Maughan bill passed all three readings on that day, was approved unanimously, and sent to the Council. It provided simply that any woman twenty-one or older, a resident of the territory for six months, who was born or naturalized in the United States or who was the wife, widow, or daughter of a citizen was entitled to vote in any election. On February 9, the Council passed the bill with some amendments which the House refused to accept. A conference committee agreed to accept the House bill and on February 10, both the House and Council passed the amended version. Orson Pratt, speaker of the House, sent the bill to Territorial Secretary and Acting Governor S. A. Mann. Though Mann said he had "very grave and serious doubts of the wisdom and soundness of that political economy which makes the act a law of this Territory," he signed it on February 12, 1870, because both the House and Council had passed it unanimously. Governor J. Wilson Shafer, who was still in Washington at the time, told Delegate Hooper that he intended to wire Mann to veto the bill, but he failed to do so.15 In true Utah fashion the Ghost Government of the Ghost State of Deseret considered the proposal. On February 21, 1870, the territorial legislature reconvened itself as the Senate and House of the State of Deseret, heard the message of Governor Brigham Young, and adopted the laws of the Territory of Utah for the State of Deseret. In addition the legislature passed and Young approved a joint resolution to submit an amendment to the constitution of the State of Deseret to the people which would allow the vote to all women over the age of twenty-one.16 Though the women of Utah had had little to do with the actual passage of the bill, they were gratified at its enactment. At a meeting 15 16

Jack, " W o m a n Suffrage in U t a h , " 19. See footnote 14 and DNW, February 23, 1870.


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27

of the Female Relief Society in Salt Lake City on February 19, seven days after the passage of the act, Eliza R. Snow, a plural wife of both Joseph Smith and Brigham Young, proposed an expression of gratitude to Acting Governor Mann for signing the bill. The proposal was adopted and a committee made up of wives of some of the most prominent men in the territory drafted the resolution and presented it to the acting governor.17 Already, on February 14, 1870, two days after the passage of the bill, women had voted in a municipal election in Salt Lake City. Though it probably would have been difficult to prove, contemporaries say that the first woman voter was Miss Saraph Young, daughter of Brigham H. Young and grand niece of Brigham Young. Even though the women of Wyoming got the suffrage first, women in Utah voted before their neighbors to the east, owing to the timing of the municipal election.18 After the suffrage was granted, the women of Utah did not simply rest with their newly won freedom. Mrs. Sarah M. Kimball, a leader in the Relief Society and later a nationally known woman's rights advocate, began a program of civic education for the women of the territory. She helped form clubs, organized classes in history and political science, and directed the work generally. Mrs. Kimball and others saw that the Relief Society was put to good use in the promotion of activities and classes. Relief Society meetings became classes in government, mock trials, and symposia on parliamentary law.19 Women began to take an active part in public affairs. On one occasion, Brigham Young was asked if he wanted women in such offices as sheriff. He replied that if one of his wives, Harriet Cook Young, who had signed the memorial to Governor Mann and who happened to be six feet tall, "went out after a man she would get him every time." In keeping with Young's ideas, women began to participate in civic activities. Miss Georgia Snow, a niece of Judge Zerubbabel Snow, among others, was admitted to the bar. Women were placed on school boards in various districts, and as early as September 1874, two women served on a coroner's jury at Little Cottonwood.20 17 M a n y of the women were also plural wives. DNW, M a r c h 2, 1870; Tullidge, Salt Lake City, 4 3 5 ; Jack, " W o m a n Suffrage in U t a h , " 32. 18 Tullidge, Salt Lake City, 4 3 7 ; Jack, " W o m a n Suffrage in U t a h , " 2 1 ; Deseret Evening News (Salt Lake C i t y ) , M a y 9, 1947. 19 Susa Young Gates, " T h e Suffrage Movement," M S and "History, Chapter, W o m a n Suffrage in U t a h , " p . 16, Gates File, U S H S . 20 Gates, "History, Chapter, W o m a n Suffrage in U t a h , " 17 and "Copy," M S , Gates File, U S H S .


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Eliza Roxey Snow (18041887), poetess and Relief Society president, was a strong advocate and leader in woman's rights. Photograph from the Utah State Historical Society.

E. L. T. Harrison (18301900), editor of the U t a h Magazine, published several articles supporting woman suffrage. Photograph from the Utah State Historical Society.

The majority of the people in Utah appear to have been pleased with this experiment in democracy. Louise L. Green, editor of the Woman's Exponent, the organ of the Female Relief Society, expressed this feeling in June 1872 in an early number of the periodical when she said that she was proud that the women of Utah did not have to bear the burden of disfranchisement which the women of most of the United States did. Women ought to have the right "to say who shall disburse those taxes [which many of them pay], how that government shall be conducted, or who shall decide on a question of peace or war which may involve the lives of their sons, brothers, fathers, and husbands." 21 In April 1883, Apostle Erastus Snow said that it was the Lord who moved u p o n His servants a n d the Legislature of our Territory to be a m o n g t h e first to lead the van of h u m a n progress in the extension of the elective Woman's Exponent, I (June 1, 1872), 5.


Woman Suffrage in Utah

29

franchise to women as well as men, and to recognize the freedom and liberty which belongs to the fairer sex as well as the sterner; for the Gospel teaches that all things are to be done by common consent . . . . 22

Though comment outside Utah initially saw woman suffrage as an enlightened move, that view gradually disappeared. The principal reason for its dissipation appears to have been that women of Utah neither forced an end to polygamy, nor did they elect Gentiles to undermine the power of the Mormon church in Utah. Even the passage of the Edmunds Act did not change the situation, in spite of the disfranchisement of all polygamous men and women. Charges were thrown around about the illegal voting of alien women and under-aged girls, some of which were probably true — though the act did allow some women, who would normally have been considered aliens, to vote. As Congress considered the Edmunds-Tucker Act in 1886 and 1887, this sentiment in Utah reached a peak, and a provision of the act disfranchised all women in Utah Territory. 23 Thus ended a seventeen-year experiment in political equality between the sexes. It had burst on the rock of national anti-Mormon and anti-polygamy sentiment because the enterprise had not had the effect which national leaders expected it to have. It had not brought an end to polygamy and church domination in Utah. One question remains unanswered. Did the Mormon hierarchy promote woman suffrage in an attempt to strengthen its hold on Utah politics as some Gentiles believed? This seems hardly to have been the case. Never, throughout the history of Utah up to the time of granting the suffrage to women, was there any real possibility that Gentile men might outnumber Mormon men. Though the possibility existed that the coming of the railroad in 1869 might have changed this, there is little evidence that the church leaders expected it to happen. It appears, rather, that the reasons given in public for granting woman suffrage in 1870 are the real ones because they are congruent with the progressive sentiment among the Mormons at the time. Cannon's editorials in the Deseret News, the church organ, are progressive and optimistic in tone. They speak of the perfectability of man, the need for equality in the community, and the high place of women in Mormon society. Though women did not hold ecclesiastical offices, they had always 22

Speech of Erastus Snow, April 6, 1883, in Journal of Discourses, X I V , 69. Tullidge, Salt Lake City, 433 a n d 4 3 5 ; Jack, " W o m a n Suffrage in U t a h , " 26, 27, and 3 2 ; Statement of Mrs. Angie F . N e w m a n , J u n e 8, 1886, in U.S., Congress, Senate, Miscellaneous Document 122, 4 9 t h Cong., 1st Sess., 1885-86, Serial 2346. 23


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voted on matters brought before the congregation and Eliza R. Snow and her companions led the Relief Society and the "Young Ladies' Department of the Co-operative Retrenchment Association" which evolved into the Young Women's Mutual Improvement Association. Women were encouraged by church leaders to participate in public affairs, and such leaders as Sarah M. Kimball had a high place in the public esteem. It was only natural that church leaders and the majority of the people of Utah, given the community sentiment, should favor legal participation for women in public life. It is not at all surprising that when the people of Utah were again given the opportunity to express their feelings on woman suffrage in the 1895 Constitution, they favored it overwhelmingly. It is also not surprising, that principal opposition came from nonMormons in the mining districts of Utah. 24 It seems probable, then, that in 1870, progressive sentiment was simply in advance of the rest of the nation and because of their experience and beliefs, the Mormons were willing to move in where others feared to tread. 24

115-16.

Stanley S. Ivins, "A Constitution for Utah," U.H.Q., XXV (April, 1957), 102-6 and

S T A T E M E N T O F OWNERSHIP, MANAGEMENT AND C I R C U L A T I O N The Utah Historical Quarterly is published quarterly by the Utah State Historical Society, 603 East South Temple, Salt Lake City, Utah 84102. The editor is Charles S. Peterson and Margery W. Ward is associate editor 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 purposes, function, and non-profit status of this organization and the exempt status for federal income tax purposes have not changed during the preceding twelve months. The following figures are the average number of copies of each issue during the preceding twelve months: 2,500 copies printed; no paid circulation; 1,904 mail subscriptions; 1,779 total paid circulation; 125 free distribution (including samples) by mail, carrier, or other means; 1,904 total distribution; 596 inventory for office use, leftover, unaccounted, spoiled after printing; total 2,500. The following figures are the actual number of copies of single issue published nearest to filing date: 2,500 copies printed; no paid circulation; 2,095 mail subscriptions; 1,970 total paid circulation; 125 free distribution (including samples) by mail, carrier, or other means; 2,095 total distribution; 355 inventory and 50 for office use, leftover, unaccounted, spoiled after printing; total 2,500.


Dr. Martha Hughes Cannon, Utah State Senator.

Gentle Persuaders Utah's First Women Legislators BY J E A N B I C K M O R E

WHITE

X

H E N I G H T OF N O V E M B E R 3, 1896, marked the end of an election that is probably unsurpassed in the state's history for intense interest and bitter division over a major issue. It also marked the end of a race that attracted national attention-—a contest for a state Senate seat that involved a prominent M o r m o n polygamist a n d his fourth wife. D r . White is assistant professor of political science a t Weber State College. O n e of her major fields of interest is early U t a h political history.


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The major issue in the election was silver, one that split Utah Republicans into two rival camps and badly hampered their campaign efforts. Adding a note of human interest to the election, Utah's first since statehood, was a contest in the Sixth Senatorial District in Salt Lake County, where Angus M. Cannon, Sr., and his physician wife, Dr. Martha Hughes Cannon, were competing. Ten candidates were running "at large" for the district's five seats, five nominated by the Republicans and five on a Democratic-Populist fusion ticket. Voters were free to vote for any five — all Democrats, all Republicans, or any mixture they might choose. It was not true, as has often been stated, that Dr. Cannon and her husband were running directly against each other. Both could have won seats, or both could have lost. But they were in a lively contest, with Democrats benefiting from strong sentiment for William Jennings Bryan at the head of their ticket. It is small wonder, as the daughter of Angus M. and Martha Hughes Cannon has recalled, that her father was "sweating blood" on election night as he waited for the returns. 1 Two proud and strong-willed individuals were in a contest where someone's pride was likely to be hurt. When the returns were in, Dr. Cannon was one of the five Democrats elected in the district, having polled 11,413 votes. Her husband, who was expected to benefit by his prominence as president of the Salt Lake Stake of the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints, drew only 8,742 votes. Dr. Cannon ran behind the rest of the Democratic-Populist ticket, while her husband ran ahead of all but one of the five Republican candidates. Also running on the Republican ticket was one of Dr. Cannon's personal friends and a co-worker for many years in the woman suffrage movement, Emmeline B. Wells.2 Dr. Cannon had become the first woman state senator in the United States in a contest with both her husband and a close friend — a dramatic beginning for a legislative career. During the campaign this contest had attracted considerable attention, with two daily newspapers lining up on opposite sides. The Salt Lake Tribune, which was Republican oriented, supported Angus M. Cannon, while the Democratic Salt Lake Herald supported his wife. The public followed the contest with some amusement through the pages 1 Interview by the author with Mrs. Elizabeth C a n n o n McCrimmon, August 4, 1969, in Alhambra, California. 2 Election returns from Salt Lake County, Salt Lake Tribune, November 14, 1896.


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of the two newspapers. In response to a Herald writer's suggestion that Dr. Cannon would be the better choice as a legislator, the Tribune offered some advice to her husband: "We do not see anything for Augus M. to do but to either go home and break a bouquet over Mrs. Cannon's head, to show his superiority, or to go up to the Herald office and break a chair over the head of the man who wrote that disturber of domestic peace." 3 Women also won other legislative contests in Utah. In elections for the state House of Representatives, two women competed in Salt Lake County, one in Weber County, and one in Utah County. Two Democratic candidates won: Mrs. Sarah E. Anderson of Ogden and Mrs. Eurithe K. LaBarthe of Salt Lake City. In the Third Senatorial District, which included Davis, Rich, and Morgan counties, a prominent Republican woman, Mrs. Lucy A. Clark, was defeated by Aquila Nebeker, a Democratic rancher, for the district's only Senate seat. During the campaign, Nebeker was candid about the agony he would suffer if he should happen to lose to a woman. "I am in an awkward position," he told a Tribune reporter. "If I don't get out, people will say I am frightened. If I do make a struggle for the place, the same people will declare that I am fighting a woman. Then if I win, no one will concede that any credit is due me, while defeat would make me the laughing stock of the whole state." 4 It seems that the presence of women in Utah's first statewide election was not accepted with complete equanimity, despite the fact that three women were elected to the legislature and eleven women were elected to the position of county recorder. All of the women legislative candidates ran behind their tickets, which may indicate that many Utah voters were not yet willing to accept women in legislative halls. By the time Utah gained statehood, women had had some practical experience as party workers and voters. Utah women had voted in territorial days, from 1870 until they were deprived of the vote by the Edmunds-Tucker Act in 1887. Women had served on party committees, had formed political clubs, and had been wooed with promises of suffrage by both major parties when delegates to the 1895 constitutional convention were chosen. During the convention, delegates were often reminded of those pledges, not only by the speakers but by the determined suffragists who 3 4

Salt Lake Tribune, November 1, 1896. Ibid., October 30, 1896.


34

Utah Historical Quarterly crowded around the convention hall and listened to the debates with intense interest. One of the most vocal champions of woman suffrage was Orson F. Whitney, a prominent Mormon leader and historian, who pictured women's participation in politics as a giant leap toward purification of government and society. Denying that women were meant only to be mothers and housekeepers, Whitney went on to say:

I believe the day will come when t h r o u g h t h a t very refinement, the elevating a n d ennobling influence which w o m a n exerts, in conjunction with other agencies that are at work for the betterment of the world, all t h a t is base a n d unclean in Orson F. Whitney (1855-1931), politics . . . will be " b u r n t and prominent Mormon leader and purged away," and the great rehistorian, advocated woman sult will justify woman's present suffrage. Photograph from the participation in the cause of reUtah State Historical Society. form . . . . I t is w o m a n ' s destiny to have a voice in the affairs of government. She was designed for it. She has a right to it. This great social upheaval, this w o m a n ' s m o v e m e n t t h a t is m a k i n g itself heard a n d felt, means something m o r e t h a n t h a t certain women are ambitious to vote a n d hold office. I regard it as one of the great levers by which the Almighty is lifting u p this fallen world, lifting it nearer to the throne of its Creator. . . , 5

Whitney was answering the arguments of many who opposed placing the woman suffrage clause in the new constitution — most notably the popular Mormon official and orator, B. H. Roberts. During the course of the debates over this issue, some of the misgivings about women in politics were voiced, and some of the problems of woman suffrage peculiar to Utah were brought into the open. 5 U t a h , Constitutional Convention, 1895, Official Report of the Proceedings and Debates (2 vols., Salt Lake City, 1898), I, 508. Hereafter referred to a Convention Proceedings.


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It should be realized that the woman suffrage issue was interwoven with the long MormonGentile struggle for electoral strength during the territorial period. The law granting women the vote in territorial elections was passed in 1870 with the active support of Brigham Young. It was opposed by non-Mormons generally in the territory and was challenged in territorial courts on at least two occasions. The provision of the Edmunds-Tucker Act in 1887 withdrawing the right of woman suffrage seems to have sprung from a desire to reduce the number of Mormon voters and to add to the weight of non-Mormons (particularly that of such single men as miners and railroad workers ) in Utah politics. Through the years, the woman suffrage movement in Utah had had the blessing of the First Presidency of the Mormon church; the wives of

35

Brigham H. Roberts (1857-1933), writer and politician, was a strong opponent of woman suffrage. Photograph from the Widtsoe Family Collection, Utah State Historical Society.

aspostles had been among its leaders. By 1895 the issue of woman suffrage was one that divided many — but by no means all — Mormons and non-Mormons. One of the main arguments of B. H. Roberts against the inclusion of woman suffrage in the constitution was that it would cause non-Mormons (as well as those Mormons who were not enthusiastic about having women vote) to vote against the new constitution and end Utah's hopes for statehood. According to Apostle Abraham H. Cannon, members of the church First Presidency and Quorum of Twelve Apostles were divided over the question of including a woman suffrage article in the state constitution, fearing that "agitation" of the issue would open old Mormon-Gentile


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political wounds and lead to the rejection of the constitution and statehood.6 There could be little fear that women would "take over" political life by sheer numbers. In 1890 United States Census reports showed that males in the territory outnumbered females by a substantial margin, 110,463 to 97,442. By 1895 the territorial census showed a population of 126,803 males and 120,521 females, still a comfortable edge for the masculine population in the unlikely event that a political issue should sharply divide the sexes.7 Instead, delegates to the convention voiced fears that women would not act independently in political life but would obey the dictation of husbands and fathers. It was also asserted that women were of a "higher" nature, not suited to enter the political jungle. Some predicted that women would lose their finer virtues and be "unsexed" in the process of gaining political rights, becoming deeply involved in political life and destroying the tranquility of their homes. No less a personage than Cardinal Gibbons was quoted by Roberts, warning against the extension of political rights to women: Christian wives and mothers, I have said you are the queens of the domestic kingdom. If you would retain that empire, shun the political arena, avoid the rostrum, beware of unsexing yourselves. If you become embroiled in political agitation the queenly aureola that encircles your brow will fade away and the reverence that is paid you will disappear. If you have the vain ambition of reigning in public life, your domestic empire will be at an end. 8

Cardinal Gibbons's remarks seem to be directed beyond the question of woman suffrage to the question of women seeking the power of political office. In 1895 no one knew how many would seek office — or what they would try to accomplish if they won. Would they, as some predicted, lose their femininity and destroy their homes? Would they act independently or obey their husbands' wishes? Would they be militant reformers, trying to impose "radical" programs on the state? Or would they simply fail to do anything constructive if they gained political office?9 " A b r a h a m H . C a n n o n Journal ( U t a h State Historical Society), April 4, 1895. 7 Results of both enumerations reported in the Salt Lake Tribune Almanac, 1896 (Salt Lake City, 1897), xii. For more detailed information on sex and marital status in 1890 see U.S., D e p a r t m e n t of the Interior, Census Division, Abstract of the Eleventh Census: 1890 (2nd ed., Washington, D . C , 1896), 10 and 56. 8 Convention Proceedings, I, 469. 9 According to the Tribune Almanac, women wasted little time before voting and seeking office after the new state constitution was adopted. T h e Almanac for 1899 reported that Mrs. M. J. Atwood was elected school trustee in Kamas, Summit County, on J a n u a r y 9, 1896 — just a few days after statehood day. T h e same source listed the first woman to vote in U t a h after


Utah's First Women

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Some observations relating to these questions were m a d e after less than two decades of statehood by a prominent U t a h woman, Mrs. Susa Young Gates. I n an appraisal of the effects of w o m a n suffrage in the state, she wrote that the proportion of women in office in the state at that time (1913) was small, "as most women in this state are domestic in their habits and lives; they prize the franchise and use it independently, but their attention to politics consists chiefly in their desire, nay their determination, to see that good and honorable m e n are p u t in office." 10 Mrs. Gates held no illusions that women would behave very differently in political life than m e n did, except perhaps to make political parties "extremely cautious as to the moral qualifications of their candidates," particularly where "liquor and other moral affiliations of the candidates" were concerned. 1 1 " W o m e n themselves too often make the mistake of urging that the vote will enable them to purify politics, and to reform the world," she wrote. " W h a t nonsense!" Women would do as much good as m e n would with the same rights, she said, and would do no more h a r m t h a n men would. As for the disruptive effects of equal political rights upon domestic life, Mrs, Gates denied that giving women the franchise h a d h a d any ill effects. " O n the contrary," she observed, "it tends to increase woman's poise, for she has nothing left to ask for, and so turns with delight to giving her best self, her fuller attention in the usual channels of domestic and social life, with the added zest of vital interest in civic affairs." 12 With the constitutional convention debates and the observations of Mrs. Gates in mind, the careers of the first three women elected to Utah's legislature will be examined in this article. It should be pointed out that effectiveness in a legislative body rarely can be determined by examining the official records, for they tell us little about personal influence patterns or about all-important committee work on bills. Journals of the House and Senate give little of the flavor of the debates and none of the "behind-the-scenes" activity; fortunately, some of this is brought out in newspaper reports and personal reminiscences. Evaluations must be m a d e on the basis of records and reports now available — after the passage statehood as Mrs. George Mullins, who cast a ballot in the municipal election at Mercur on April 21, 1896. Salt Lake Tribune Almanac, 1899, 36. 10 Letter from Susa Young Gates to A r t h u r W. Page of Women's Work, answering the inquiries of a number of prominent English women as to the effects of woman suffrage, 1913. Reprinted in K a t e B. Carter, comp., Woman Suffrage in the West ([Salt Lake City], 1943), 304. 11 Ibid., 305. 12 Ibid., 306-7.


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of nearly three-quarters of a century. Within these limitations, the kinds of bills sponsored by Utah's first three women legislators will be shown, as well as the success they had in getting their measures passed and the importance of some of their efforts. Utah's two women members of the House in the Second Legislature, Eurithe K. LaBarthe of Salt Lake City and Sarah E. Anderson of Ogden, did not capture as much attention as did the more colorful state senator. However, each made her own contribution to Utah political history.

H urithe K. LaBarthe was a prominent clubwoman in Salt Lake City and the wife of an express company official. She was particularly active in the Ladies' Literary Club and was president of that group at the time she served in the legislature. Under her direction plans were made for building a clubhouse, a structure that was opened January 1, 1898. The clubhouse, located between First South and South Temple, is said to be the first clubhouse built and owned by women west of the Mississippi River. 13 Although she is usually referred to as a clubwoman — which sometimes is a pejorative term — Eurithe LaBarthe was also a teacher and a former principal of a school in Colorado. Perhaps because of this experience, she served as chairman of the Education Committee in the House. A native of Peoria, Illinois, she came to Utah with her husband in 1892 and became active in Democratic politics.14 After her legislative service, Mrs. LaBarthe moved to Denver, where she continued to be active in women's club work. She returned to Utah for a visit, became ill, and died in Salt Lake City on November 22, 1910, at the age of sixty-five.15 The so-called "High Hat Law" was Mrs. LaBarthe's most memorable contribution to Utah legislative history. Often cited as an example of the trivial interests women pursue in politics, the bill provided that "any person attending a theater, opera-house or an indoor place of amusement as a spectator shall remove headwear tending to obstruct the view of any other person." A fine of from one to ten dollars was provided for persons convicted of violating provisions of the act.16 13 K a t h e r i n e B. Parsons, History of Fifty Years - Ladies' Literary Club (Salt Lake City 1927), 93. " "Salt Lake Tribune, J a n u a r y 10, 1897. 15 Deseret Evening News (Salt Lake C i t y ) , November 23, 1910. 10 Original and substitute H . B. 13 in file of House Bills, 1897 ( U t a h State Archives, State C a p i t o l ) .


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Utah's First Women Legislators

The "High Hat Law" was vigorously defended by the Ladies Literary Club historian a quarter of a century after its passage:

Eurithe K. LaBarthe, Democratic member of Utah House of Representatives in 1897. Photograph from the History of Fifty Years, Ladies' Literary Club, by Katherine Barrette Parsons.

Only those who can recollect the high hats, the broad hats, the waving plumes a n d nodding flower gardens t h a t w o m e n carried about on their heads thirty years ago, a n d who remember h o w utterly impossible it was to enjoy a performance at the theatre if you h a p p e n e d to sit directly behind one of these monstrosities, can fully appreciate how great a public benefactor Mrs. L a B a r t h e really was at the time. Although t h e " H i g h H a t L a w " was regarded at first as "freak legislation" by women who were averse to removing their decorative headgear in public places, it was from the first looked u p o n with favor by men, a n d it was not a great while before it received universal a p proval. 1 7

Mrs. LaBarthe introduced H. B. 50 establishing a curfew ordinance to keep children off the streets at night. The House rejected the bill, upon recommendation of its Committee on Municipal Corporations, on the grounds that such regulations should be within the province of the governing body of cities and towns.18 She also introduced a memorial to Congress that was passed in substitute form by both houses and approved by Governor Heber M. Wells. The memorial asked that the Industrial Home on Fifth East, built by the federal government as a refuge for women and children fleeing from polygamous marriages, be granted to the State of Utah to be used for educational or charitable purposes. The memorial pointed out that the building had stood idle for several years because of "changed conditions" in the state and was badly needed by the state for educational and charitable purposes.19 Apparently Congress turned a deaf ear to the prayers of this memorial, for the building was sold a few years later. 17

Parsons, Ladies' Literary Club, 95. U t a h , Second Legislature, Journal of the House of Representatives, 1897, 145. 19 See Senate Joint Memorial 9, incorporating Mrs, LaBarthe's House Joint Memorial 6 in file of Memorials, 1897 ( U t a h State Archives). 18


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O a r a h Elizabeth Nelson Anderson of Ogden, Utah's other woman House member in the Second Legislature, was described by a writer for the Ogden Standard as "naturally a strong woman, mentally and physically," and as "one of the most prominent and popular women in Ogden city and Weber county." 20 A legislative colleague, S. A. Kenner, wrote that she was a staunch advocate of equality of man and woman. Her political views were not marked with wavering indecision, he noted, but were thoroughly formed and remained firm. "Yet she did not lose her sweet, womanly repose," he added — perhaps for the benefit of those who felt that women politicians inevitably would lose their feminine charm. 21 A Tribune writer took pains to point out that she was "not what might be termed a clubwoman, her large property interests and her home life with her children occupying the greater portion of her time." The writer added that she took time for reading and study and was "remarkably well posted on matters of current interest and public concern." 22 Born in 1853, Sarah married an Ogden physician, Dr. Porter L. Anderson, at the age of seventeen. He died in 1888, leaving her with five children. She died on December 22, 1900. Her major contribution to Utah political history was not her legislative record but her part in a lawsuit that threw Utah's registration procedures into turmoil briefly in 1895. As has been noted, Utah women were deprived of the franchise in 1887 by the Edmunds-Tucker Act. The Enabling Act passed by Congress in 1894 provided for the election of delegates for a constitutional convention by "all male citizens over the age of twenty-one years, who have resided in said Territory for one year next prior to such election . . . . " Delegates to the convention were required to have the same qualifications.23 The Enabling Act seemed to make it clear in Section 2 that voting on the ratification or rejection of the new constitution should be confined to "persons possessing the qualifications entitling them to vote for dele20

Standard (Ogden, U t a h ) , December 22, 1900. S. A. Kenner, Utah As It Is. With a Comprehensive Statement of Utah As It Was (Salt Lake City, 1904), 451. 22 Salt Lake Tribune, J a n u a r y 10, 1897. 23 Convention Proceedings, I, 3. T h e text of the Enabling Act is contained therein, I, 3-8. 21


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gates under this act," or male voters only. However, the Act stated in Section 4 that the "qualified voters of said proposed State" should vote in November for or against the constitution, and women were clearly part of the "qualified voters" of the new state under the new constitution. The act further provided in Section 19 that officers for a state government might be elected during the ratification election, but gave no instructions as to eligible voters.24 The Utah Commission, a federally appointed board that had conducted elections in Utah since the Edmunds Act of 1882, was to make up the regi- Sarah E. Anderson, member of stration list for the election of 1895, the House of Representatives of Utah's Second Legislature. in which voters would accept or re- Photograph furnished by ject the new constitution and choose the author. a slate of state officers. The provisions of the Enabling Act soon came into question, for some women were asking to be registered, and the often-unpopular federal commissioners apparently did not want to have to interpret the law. They suggested that all female electors be registered in alphabetical order on separate pages, so as to be readily distinguished.25 The commission was relieved of its unhappy burden of decision when Sarah Anderson appeared at the office of Deputy Register Charles Tyree in Ogden's Second Precinct on August 6. Mrs. Anderson asked to be registered to vote both on the ratification of the constitution and on the election of a slate of officers for the new state; Tyree refused to register her on the ground that she was a female. The next day, Mrs. Anderson went to court, seeking a writ of mandate to compel Tyree to register her. The battery of lawyers acting on Mrs. Anderson's behalf — or perhaps using her as part of a scheme to show Democratic sympathy for woman suffrage (as the Republican Ogden Standard asserted) —included a number of prominent Democrats. Attorneys bringing the action included both MorIbid., 4, 5, 8. Deseret Evening News, July 23, 1895.


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mons and non-Mormons, notably Franklin S. Richards, Samuel R. Thurman, and H . P. Henderson. 2 6 Sarah Anderson won the first round. Judge H . W. Smith of the District Court in O g d e n ruled that women were qualified not only to vote for state officers but on adoption or rejection of the constitution as well, and he ordered Tyree to register Mrs. Anderson. 2 7 T h e case was promptly appealed to the territorial Supreme Court by Tyree's equally prominent attorneys, which included Attorney A r t h u r Brown, later to be a Republican United States senator from U t a h . T w o of the three justices agreed with Brown that Mrs. Anderson h a d not been enfranchised by the Enabling Act. T h e M o r m o n member of the court, Associate Justice William H . King (later a Democratic congressman and senator from U t a h ) offered a dissenting opinion. 28 Utah's women h a d to wait until after statehood to vote — although their hopes h a d been raised while the case was being appealed. During this time the Republicans in their state convention h a d nominated a woman to run for state superintendent of public instruction in case women should receive the franchise. 29 Sarah Anderson served as chairman of the House Committee on Public Health, which handled a number of important bills. However, she does not seem to have been active in introducing and getting her own bills passed. She introduced one bill (H.B. 39) regarding police and fire commissioners that was killed by an unfavorable committee report. She also introduced H . B. 26 to provide for teaching the effects of alcoholic drink and narcotics in schools. A substitute bill with these provisions was incorporated in the state's revised statutes. 30

D,

T. M a r t h a Hughes Cannon is the best known and most Utah's women politicians of her era. 3 1 Born on July 1, 1857, dno, Wales, she came to U t a h with her parents as a young father died only three days after the family's arrival in Salt 26

colorful of in Llanduchild. H e r Lake City,

Standard, August 7, 1895. Deseret Evening News, July 23, 1895. 28 Anderson v. Tyree, 12 U t a h Reports 129 ( 1 8 9 5 ) . 29 Deseret Evening News, August 29, 1895. Mrs. E m m a J. McVicker was nominated, with Dr. J o h n R. Park as a substitute to run if women were denied the right to vote and run for office. Dr. Park's name was placed on the ballot after the Supreme Court ruled in the Anderson case, and he was elected. 30 See file of House Bills, 1897 ( U t a h State Archives). 31 Several biographical articles on Dr. Cannon have been published. D a t a herein, unless otherwise cited, is from an unpublished manuscript by her daughter, Mrs. Elizabeth C. McCrimmon, in the U t a h State Historical Society library, and from Andrew Jenson, Latter-day Saint Biographical Encyclopedia (4 vols., Salt Lake City, 1 9 0 1 - 1 9 3 6 ) , I V , 86-88, 27


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43

and her mother married a widower, James P. Paul. Despite the family's limited means, she dreamed of studying to become a physician. T o realize this goal she saved as much as she could from her salary as a school teacher and later as a typesetter for the Deseret Evening News and the Woman's Exponent. She had been "called" by the First Presidency of the L.D.S. Church for the typesetting position and h a d learned to set Scandinavian type in order to earn higher wages. In 1876 she enrolled in the pre-medical department of the University of Deseret. T w o years later she was blessed and "set a p a r t " by L.D.S. church President John Taylor for medical studies. Arriving at the University of Michigan in the fall of 1878 with slender financial resources, she began her studies, washing dishes and making beds at a boardinghouse to help defray costs. She graduated with the M . D . degree on her twenty-third birthday, July 1, 1880. Feeling that training in oratory would enable her to be more effective as a lecturer on public health, she went to Philadelphia and enrolled in both the University of Pennsylvania and the National School of Elocution and Oratory. In 1882 she received a Bachelor of Science degree from the university, the only woman in a class of seventy-five. She also received a Bachelor of Oratory degree from the school of elocution. After returning to U t a h she built a private medical practice and served as a resident physician at Deseret Hospital. O n October 6, 1884, she became the fourth wife of Angus M . Cannon, a m a n who was twentythree years her senior and a member of the board of the hospital. After the birth of her first child, she left the state in an effort to permit her husband to avoid imprisonment by federal authorities. She went to Europe, where she visited leading hospitals; after returning to U t a h she established the first training school for nurses in the state. W h e n her second child was born she again left her medical practice to live in San Francisco. O n her return she resumed her practice, specializing in the diseases of women and children. Mattie Cannon, as she was usually known, became an ardent Democrat and also played an active role in the woman suffrage movement. Before her election to the Senate she was active in suffrage groups in U t a h and spoke at a national suffrage meeting at the Columbian Exposition in Chicago in 1893. In 1898 she went to Washington, D . C , to speak at a convention marking the fiftieth anniversary of the Seneca Falls declaration of women's rights and appeared before a congressional committee urging the lawmakers to give women the vote. Of this convention Dr.


44

Utah Historical

Quarterly

: if

mm

Mi

Senate and staff of Utah's Second Legislature. Dr. Martha first woman state senator in the United States, is standing Senator John T. Caine and President of the Senate Aquila The other two women are clerks. Photograph was a gift of Mrs. Elizabeth McCrimmon.

Hughes Cannon, between Nebeker.

Cannon wrote to her friend, Emmeline B. Wells, that "Utah received her full share of honor and recognition, and was acknowledged to be in the vanguard of progress. On every occasion was her representative treated in the most courteous and considerate manner." 32 Dr. Cannon's strong Democratic party loyalties were evident in the same letter when she described President William McKinley as "a great man, notwithstanding he is not a Democrat." 33 ^McCrimmon MS, 17. Ibid.

33

Angus Munn Cannon, church leader and businessman, was an unsuccessful Republican candidate for the Utah State Senate in 1896. Photograph was a gift of Elizabeth McCrimmon.


Utah's First Women Legislators

45

Because of her unique position as a physician, state senator, and plural wife, Mattie Cannon was the subject of several interviews by writers for leading publications. She was described by the English socialist, Beatrice Webb, as a "vivacious frank little Senator . . . ." Mrs. Webb's appraisal continued: She was such a self-respectful vigourous pure-minded little soul: sensitive yet unself-conscious, indiscreet yet loyal. She had no training for the political career she had chosen, and I suspect her medical knowledge was as fragmentary as her economics. As a citizen I should doubt her wisdom as a legislator — and as a patient I certainly should not trust her skill in diagnosing my case. But as a friend I should rely on her warm sympathy and freedom from the meaner motives of life.34

As usual, Dr. Cannon strongly defended polygamy in the Webb interview. She also offered a firm defense of plural marriage when she was interviewed a few days after her election by a writer for the San Francisco Examiner. Dr. Cannon maintained that a plural wife was not as much a slave as a single woman. She noted that "If her husband has four wives, she has three weeks of freedom every single month." She was firm in her defense of women working and engaging in worthwhile activities outside of the home: Somehow I know that women who stay home all the time have the most unpleasant homes there are. You give me a woman who thinks about something besides cook stoves and wash tubs and baby flannels, and I'll show you, nine times out of ten, a successful mother.

She said she felt women should run for political offices, except perhaps for such offices as governor — they were too "mannish." 35 It is unlikely that Mattie Cannon was ever described as "mannish." She was frequently described by her contemporaries as attractive, charming, and completely feminine. With the charm went an independent spirit; she had a mind of her own and interests of her own to pursue in her legislative career. Not even the redoubtable Angus M. Cannon could control her vote. When she took her seat in the Senate at the opening of the Second Legislature on January 11, 1897, it was noted in the Tribune that she was a little late arriving, and that a handsome bouquet of roses adorned her desk.36 Within a month she had introduced three bills: "An Act to 34 David A. 1963), 134-35. 35 Interview Salt Lake Herald, 30 Salt Lake

Shannon, ed., Beatrice

Webb's

American

published in the San Francisco Examiner, November 11, 1896. Tribune, J a n u a r y 12, 1897.

Diary,

1898

(Madison, Wisconsin,

November 8, 1896, reprinted in the


46

Utah Historical

Quarterly

Protect the Health of Women and Girl Employees" (S.B. 31), "An Act Providing for the Compulsory Education of Deaf, Dumb and Blind Children" (S.B. 22), and "An Act Creating a State Board of Health and Defining its Duties" (S.B. 27). The first made it mandatory for employers to provide "chairs, stools, or other contrivances" where women or girls employed as clerks might rest when not working." 37 The second made education of deaf, dumb, or blind children at the state school mandatory (with certain exceptions) ,38 The third measure was the one in which Dr. Cannon was most vitally involved, since her interest in sanitation and public health had provided much of the motivation for her entry into politics. The act became part of the revised statutes that were compiled by a special commission and provided the basis for a statewide attack on problems of sanitation and contagious disease.39 The act established a seven-member State Board of Health to stimulate and encourage establishment of local boards of health and to carry out a number of other functions designed to improve sanitary conditions, water supply, and disease control. Dr. Cannon was one of the first members appointed by Governor Wells to the board, all unpaid except the secretary. The annual report of the new health board makes it clear that Dr. Cannon and other members had a difficult and frustrating first year in 1898 trying to get apathetic local officials to organize boards of health and to get public support for enforcement of a law prohibiting school attendance of children with contagious diseases.40 It was also clear that more legislation, with "teeth" for enforcement, was needed. During the second half of her four-year Senate term, in the Third Legislature in 1899, Dr. Cannon introduced an act that contained much needed rules and regulations in a number of public health areas. The act (S.B. 40) provided for the suppression of nuisances and contagious diseases, prescribed quarantine rules and regulations, provided for burial permits, promoted protection of water supplies, and established rules for inspection of school buildings and exclusion of persons with contagious or infectious diseases from schools.41 Another measure relating to health introduced by Dr. Cannon in the Third Legislature (S.B. 1) authorized the erection of a hospital build87

U t a h , Laws of Utah, 1897, Ch. X I , 24-25. Ibid., Ch. X X , 36. 39 U t a h , Revised Statutes, 1898, Title 24, 315-18. 40 See U t a h , Public Documents, 1897-98, Sec. 22, " R e p o r t of the State Board of Health." 41 U t a h , Public Documents, 1899-1900, Sec. 22, " R e p o r t of the State Board of H e a l t h " 38

4-8.


Utah's First Women Legislators

47

ing for the Utah State School for the Deaf and Dumb. A member of the board of the school until she resigned to serve on the newly created State Board of Health, Dr. Cannon was a sympathetic supporter of the school.42 Another bill she introduced in 1899 providing for the teaching in the public schools of the effects of alcholic drinks and narcotics (S.B. 37) was passed by the Senate but defeated in the House. She spent considerable time studying narcotics problems; perhaps her suggestions for extensive education on drug problems would meet with a more favorable response today. Mattie Cannon was expecting her third child during the 1899 session. She was sometimes absent from roll-call votes during the long balloting for United States senator but generally seems to have been present to pursue her interests and to serve as chairman of the Public Health Committee. Any fears that women legislators would accept the dictation of their husbands were unfounded in the case of Mattie Cannon. Her daughter reports that in 1897 Angus M. Cannon was upset because she had voted for the excommunicated Mormon apostle, Moses Thatcher, for United States senator against his wishes and in the face of strong opposition by Mormon church leaders. 43 His annoyance may have been compounded by the publicity his wife received when she switched her vote to Thatcher. During the first part of the prolonged balloting for senator by the two houses in joint session, Mattie Cannon appeared to be staying out of the battle, voting first for Senate President Aquila Nebeker, and later for a Democratic attorney, Orlando W. Powers. On the forty-third ballot on February 1, she suddenly switched her vote to Moses Thatcher, explaining that she feared a prolonged deadlock might mean the entrance of "an inferior dark horse, backed by Republican influence and gold . . . who might be elected." 44 The Tribune the next day ran a large frontpage story with a two-column drawing of Dr. Cannon. "Senator Cannon prefaced her vote with an address so eloquent that despite parliamentary decorum and the rigid rules against demonstrations she was cheered and cheered again at its conclusion," the Tribune reported on February 2. She stayed with Thatcher through the fifty-third and final ballot, when Joseph L. Rawlins was elected by a bare majority of thirty-two. Another United States senator was to be elected in 1899 during the Third Legislature. Again, according to her daughter, she defied her hus42

Bill as amended in file of Senate Bills, 1899 (Utah State Archives). Interview with Mrs. Elizabeth C McCrimmon. 44 Salt Lake Tribune, February 2, 1899. 43


48

Utah Historical Quarterly

band's wishes as well as the pleas of a charming and persuasive nephew, Senator Frank J. Cannon. Elected as a Republican in 1896, Frank J. Cannon faced an uphill fight for re-election in 1899 by an overwhelmingly Democratic state legislature. Needing every possible vote, he visited his Democratic aunt and asked her to support him. She refused, telling him that she could not vote for a Republican since she had been elected on the Democratic ticket. He left Dr. Mattie's home by the back door, feeling "quite depressed" by her refusal.45 The Senate and House members struggled unsucessfully through 164 ballots trying to find a candidate on whom 32 members could agree. Near the end, Angus M. Cannon's brother, George Q. Cannon, counselor in the First Presidency of the Mormon church and father of Frank J., entered the race. He did not receive Mattie Cannon's vote, either. She voted from the beginning to the end of the balloting for the millionaire mining man, Alfred W. McCune, apparently unimpressed by charges (investigated by a special committee but not proved) that he tried to bribe a House member. She proved to be a highly independent woman in a body full of legislators too independent to reach a common decision in 1899. The end result of all this independence was that one of Utah's seats in the United States Senate remained vacant. Mattie Cannon did not run for office after her term expired. She continued to serve on the State Board of Health and to practice medicine. During the last years of her life, she lived in Los Angeles, where she worked in the Graves Clinic. She died in Los Angeles July 10, 1932, and was buried in Salt Lake City. The main funeral speaker was none other than B. H. Roberts, who had predicted dire consequences if women were given the vote — to say nothing of entering office. Both faithful Democrats, Mattie Cannon and Roberts had become good friends over the years since the constitutional convention.

U t a h ' s first three women legislators did not reform the state overnight; they did not even attempt to do so. They were typical of the earnest suffragists of their times, with political aims not markedly different from those of their male colleagues. They showed, perhaps, a greater concern for women, children, and the phyiscally handicapped. However, they left to the Populists the introduction of most of the labor 45 M c C r i m m o n interview. Dr. C a n n o n received several "courtesy votes" for United States senator from her colleagues in 1897 a n d one vote for senator in 1899.


Utah's First Women Legislators

49

and "progressive" legislation, apparently having little inclination to sponsor sweeping reforms. Dr. Cannon was able, because of her professional training, to help the state move forward in the area of public health. But even in this area, the approach was one of "gradualism," moving at a moderate rate and seeking to build public support. Except for the memorial asking for the Industrial Home, the three women legislators did not sponsor any of the many pieces of legislation that sought favors or funds from the federal government. If some of their bills seem trivial — notably the "High Hat Law" — a day-by-day reading of the legislative journals shows that their colleagues also introduced much legislation that was equally trivial and catered to parochial interests. In short, their legislative records need neither a contrived defense nor unwarranted praise. They were about the same as those of their fellow legislators, containing both the significant and the relatively unimportant. Governor Wells was reported by Beatrice Webb to have said that the women in the Senate and House in 1897 had not accomplished anything except a law prohibiting large hats at places of amusement. And this law, he added, had been passed "out of courtesy" by the men. 40 Perhaps he signed it for the same reason. If the governor ignored the more substantial victories of the women legislators, he inadvertently made a vital point about women in politics before the turn of the century — and perhaps today as well. They were always reliant upon the "courtesy" of the men. With militant tactics they would have accomplished nothing. With quiet charm and gentle persuasion they contributed much to Utah's Second Legislature. 46

Shannon, American

Diary,

130.

Give us the power and we'll dispel, The reign of tyrants born of hell: From men's unblushing demon deeds, Her earnest soul for freedom pleads. (Woman's

Exponent,

22 [January 15, 1894], 81.)


Magerou: The Greek Midwife

BY H E L E N Z. PAPANIKOLAS

Magerou and Nick Mageras in their later years. Photograph furnished by Mrs. John Klekas and Mrs. L. O. McMichael.


than a hundred years ago, a baby girl born in a PeloA ponnesian village of Greece was fated, in the idiom of the Greeks, to leave LITTLE MORE

her country, to come to a land called Utah, and to become a legend among its South European immigrants. Often from the time she was a child, the girl, Georgia Lathouris, was sent up the mountains beyond her village to bring a bundle of bread and cheese for her father and brothers pasturing goats there. As she climbed a mountain slope one day in her fourteenth year, she heard a voice calling. In the entrance to one of the many caves on the mountain, a woman stood, calling and beckoning to her. She was frightened and began to run; it was a Nereid, she was sure, one of the beautiful creatures of glens and woods whom it was dangerous to follow. The voice called insistently, "Don't leave me! Come, come!" Cautiously the girl approached. The woman was not a Nereid but from the village and in great distress. She had been gathering wheat when labor pains had started. The girl followed her into the dark cave and with the woman's guidance, delivered the baby. From then on she was affectionately called "Mami" the Midwife. In the following years she attended other women in her village of Ahladokambos (Pear Valley), a scattering of white stone houses and a few trees set in an arid landscape much like that of Utah where she would live for a half-century. To midwifing she added folk cures. The village was poor, and she was paid in wheat and flour. The Mami's family could not provide her with a dowry, the means destitute countries used to distribute their little wealth. Centuries of foreign rule, the Revolution of 1821 to free themselves from Turkish despotism, and the resulting chaos when the energies of the country were unrealistically channeled into futile attempts to regain their lands lost to the Turks and other European powers had drained their resources. The little Mami, small, yet of great energy, was destined to remain unmarried and at the summons of the sick and of women fortunate to be wives and mothers. But the young midwife's fate, which in Greek folklore is decided by the Three Fates during the child's first three days of life, was favorable. For the first time since Greece had been conquered by the Turks in 1453, a premier, Charilaos Trikoupes, came to power intent on reconstruction of the country. 1 Greece lacked people with technical skills, and foreigners Mrs. Papanikolas, a resident of Salt Lake City, is a former contributor to the Quarterly a n d presently serves on the Advisory Board of Editors of the U t a h State Historical Society. 1 L. S. Stavrianos, The Balkans Since 1453 (New York, 1 9 6 6 ) , 472.


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came into the country to head construction crews. O n e of these foremen was a tall, young Austrian, Nikos Mageras. H e was sent to the Mami's village to build a bridge over a nearby river. Nikos h a d been a wanderer since the age of fourteen. His mother h a d died, and his father h a d married again. R a t h e r than accept his stepmother, the boy left his town of Gospic, Austria, and traveled through Russia, Asia Minor, and the Balkans. O n his journeys he h a d learned several languages and the principles of mechanical construction. Young people of the village who were not pasturing the family goats and sheep in the mountains found work on Nikos Mageras's labor crew. T h e Mami was among them. T h e foundations of the bridge were built of stone, and the young people brought the plentiful rocks of the land to the construction site. Soon after work was begun, the foreman went with the Mami to her parents' house. H e asked to marry her and waived his rights to the traditional dowry. After their marriage, Nikos continued building wherever there was work in the Peloponnese. Four children were born during a time of great national instability. By the end of the century, Greece's financial and political problems brought the country to national bankruptcy in 1893, humiliating defeat by the Turks in 1897, and impositions of foreign financial control in 1898. 2 All over the Peloponnese, bankrupt peasants were uprooting their currant bushes. Currants, the principle export of Greece, h a d fallen in price seventy per cent in the year 1893. 3 T h e precarious position of the peasants in Greece was now perilous. T h e building of roads and bridges under the Trikoupes regime was halted. T h e exodus of young men to escape the hunger and desolation of their mother country had always been constant, but now thousands were leaving to find work to help their families provide dowries and to pay off usurious mortgages. While Greece and other Balkan and Mediterranean countries were struggling desperately, America was just beginning to develop her immense and varied resources. Early emigrants returned to their native lands as labor agents and emptied villages and seaports of idle men and boys for work gangs. 4 In 1902 Nikos signed a contract with one of these labor agents. H e left his family and taking forty Greeks from all parts of the country, 2

Ibid., 467, 468. "Ibid., 472. 4 Theodore Saloutos, The Greeks in the United States Chapter 2.

(Cambridge, Massachusetts, 1964),


Magerou, The Greek Midwife

53

went to Fresno, California, to lay track for the Santa Fe Railroad. His goal was to save enough money to bring his wife and children to America. Three years later he met an Austrian he had known in Gospic who told him that his brother and several cousins were working at Utah Copper Mine in Bingham and at the Magna Mill. Nikos, now called Nick, took time off to visit Utah to see his relatives and decided that the Midvale- Bingham- Magna area was a profitable place for a business. In that year of 1905 there were two thousand Greek men in Salt Lake County,5 and each day more came. There had been only three Greeks in Utah in 1900.6 The 1903 coal mine strike in Carbon County brought Greeks into Utah in large numbers. These newest of European immigrants were unaware that an employer could be challenged as to wages, long hours, and working conditions. The Wyoming Labor Journal said: ". . . American and English speaking miners were driven from these camps. . . . The corporations considered Greeks better adapted to their needs than others and encouraged the employ of these by the hundreds." 7 Greek labor agents advertising in Greek newspapers published in America and in Greece had an inexhaustible supply of countrymen for the West. Broadinghouses were needed in every company town. Nick opened a boardinghouse in Snaketown, west of Magna, the present tailings pond of the Garfield smelter. Greeks and other nationalities lived there in make-shift houses and tents. Nick offered food, lodging, and a convenient saloon. The boardinghouse was a success with laborers, but not with a wellknown Greek labor agent and his underlings. The labor agent had become powerful; at will he could decide who would be hired by the mine, mill, and smelter; how much tribute he would take from the men's wages; and where the laborers would trade. The boardinghouse was burned down. Nick rented a second boardinghouse below the Magna firehouse of today. This was also destroyed by fire. The vendetta continued. The third boardinghouse, situated across the street from the present powerhouse, was set on fire at eleven o' clock on a payday night while Nick was in Salt Lake City attending to his duties as a representative for the Salt Lake Brewery. Thirty-five hundred dollars in gold and silver hidden in a trunk 5

Thomas Burgess, Greeks in America (Boston, 1913), 165. U.S., Bureau of the Census, A Report of the Seventeenth United States Census of Population: 1950, Vol. I I , Characteristics 44, Utah (Washington, D. C , 1952), p. 29. 7 Wyoming Labor Journal (Cheyenne), J u n e 16, 1922. 6

Decennial Census of the of the Population Part


54

Utah Historical

Quarterly

was melted into a mass. The money was Nick's savings for his family's future in America. 8 At the time of the fire, the family was on their way to Utah. It was 1909, seven years after Nick had left them. Adhering to propriety, he had sent a friend to bring his family to America. The family settled in Snaketown among three other Greek families. Two of these had German immigrant mothers who had learned to speak Greek. In the entire state there were fewer than ten Greek women, but Greek men and boys were streaming in to work on the railroad gangs, in the coal mines, the Midvale smelter, the Garfield smelter, the Magna mill, and the copper mines of Bingham. Few of the men were married. Their families had sacrificed necessities to send them to America to fulfill the responsibility of providing dowries for their sisters. When this was accomplished and their parents helped, they could then send for picture brides. Living in boardinghouses and shacks, the young men were extremely susceptible to disease. The influx of immigrants was overwhelming; their living conditions were not considered the concern of employers and townspeople. In tent colonies and shacks built by the workers from powder boxes and scrap lumber, water and sewage disposal were hazards. In response to angry editorials in Greece, a Greek woman journalist visited Utah mining towns in 1914. It would take, she wrote, the pen of Edgar Allan Poe to describe the horrors of the Greek immigrant worker's life. R. C. Gemmel, general manager of Utah Copper Company, replied to her complaints and demands that proper housing and hospitals be built for the Greeks and other immigrants: "They choose their own habitations. And if we built them new quarters, they would prefer to stay where they are." 9 The journalist found that the workers were afraid of the company doctors. Although a dollar a month was deducted from their wages for medical care, they felt they were coldly treated, like animals, not human beings. Amputations were hastily performed. This was the men's great fear. Three to five hundred dollars were paid for the loss of an arm or a leg. Uneducated as the laborers were, an amputation was the end of selfreliance and the beginning of descent into penury. 8 T h e biographical notes on the midwife were obtained from her daughters, Mrs. John Klekas and Mrs. L. O. McMichael, and several of her friends. 9 M a r i a S. Oikonomidou, Oi Ellines tis Amerikis Opos Tous Eida [The Greeks in America as I Saw Them] (New York, 1916), 85.


Magerou, The Greek

55

Midwife

The midwife, called since her marriage Magerou, the genitive form of Mageras, was eager to help her sick countrymen. When she heard of someone's illness, she relayed advice through her husband or others who came to his saloon. She often answered a knock on her door and opened it to find a sick man or boy. Long before the Greek men brought wives to America, they knew and respected Magerou. The small cluster of Greek families grew, and Magerou was the matriarch. She was often the matchmaker, too. As the men married, she was there, smiling, helping to lay out the wedding feast while the men clasped hands and danced to old-country songs of courage under Turkish bondage. She was there to attend at the birth of children and there to administer folk cures. She spoke as she felt and used Greek curses and proverbs liberally. "Too much Kyrie Eleison wearies even God." "Better to have a wise enemy than a foolish friend." Not only Greek, but Italian, Austrian, and Slavic women called Magerou at all hours. They preferred her to the company doctors. As the immigrants in American labor life became an increasing influence, industry was forced to improve living conditions; a new generation of medical school graduates came to the company towns with an interest, some with sympathy, for the immigrants. Although the young husbands Ragtown, near the site of present-day Magna, in the first decade of the century. This was one of the towns settled by Greek immigrants to Utah. Photograph from the Utah State Historical Society.

:, ,:-:^:,

«!£,«• r f W ! * * « . f f ^ J ^ * * ^ MMM,ff:


56

Utah Historical Quarterly

quickly accepted the authority of these doctors, they could not persuade their wives to be delivered by them. Life in the new country had affected the women immediately. The traditional sign of modesty for married village women, the white or black head scarf, was out-of-place in America, an invitation to gaping. Husbands forbade them. Women wore them only about their houses and yards. They wore hats to church and to town. Hats, the symbol of educated town and city women of Greece, were now theirs. The appearance of the immigrant mothers changed drastically, but not their ideas. Modesty impelled them to ask the midwife, not American men doctors, to attend them. Magerou, then, ruled over the birth of children, the proper realm of midwives. She did not lose a mother or child in her long years of practice. If she detected an abnormal pregnancy, she insisted that a doctor be called and took the lesser role of assistant. Cleanliness was a compulsion with her. Early each morning she performed a ritual of washing herself, combing her hair into a bun at the top of her head, and dressing in clean cottons to be ready for any call. She was continually mopping and airing her house: "Soap and water are too cheap in America to be dirty." The water pumps, at easy access even in camps like Snaketown and Ragtown, were a marvel to her. There was no longer the arduous work of bringing water from the village well, often only a thin stream. Regularly pregnant herself, Magerou took care of her women patients with the efficiency of a contemporary obstetrician. While olive oil and baby blankets were kept warm in coal stove ovens, she boiled cloths, kept water hot, cut her fingernails, scrubbed her arms and hands well, and after observing American doctors using alcohol and rubber gloves, she added these to her accoutrements. Women clamored for Magerou. Small though she was, her voice carried through the neighborhoods, exhorting, shouting, "Scream! Push! You've got a baby in there, not a pea in a pod!" Once the baby was born, Magerou gave her entire time to the newly delivered mother, the lehona, and to the baby. She neither cooked nor took care of the rest of the family. From the backyard she chose the plumpest chicken, simmered broth, stood over the mother forcing her to wash and to dress in a clean housedress, combed her long hair, and twisted it into a knot. For the first time in her life, the woman knew what it was to be pampered. The autocratic young husbands were reduced to errand boys.


Magerou,

The Greek Midwife

57

"Bring plenty of butter. The lehona needs butter for strength! Send a ton of coal. The lehona musn't catch cold! Go to J.C. Penney and buy a robe. The lehona must be warm!" A legion of immigrant mothers wore J.C. Penney robes made of blankets stamped with Indian designs. When the mother and baby were taken to church, the mother to be "cleansed" of the Biblical forty-days' uncleanliness, the baby to be blessed as Christ was, Magerou's duties were fulfilled. The early twenties were the days of her greatest activity. Still new in America, the immigrants depended on folk cures. Some of these had a physiological basis; others were unexplainable, and the victim or his relatives' faith in them produced psychological healing. The Evil Eye was a common complaint. A child would suddenly fall into lassitude. Unexplained fevers brought on convulsions; or he whined, cried and was sleepless. Someone with the Evil Eye had looked on the child with envy. Magerou used several prescriptions: three pinches of livdni (powdered resin, an incense burned on Saturdays to purify houses for the Sabbath) in water, or three drops of holy water, or three symbolic spittings (three, the holy number representing the Trinity) all accompanied by the Lord's Prayer. Hot red wine and powdered cloves, tea and whiskey, mustard plasters on the chest, back, and soles of the feet cured pneumonia and bronchial infections. Olive oil softened burned skin. For soufra (rickets) Magerou burned a bay leaf with a blessed candle leaving only the stem. On three different moonless nights, she touched each joint with the stem. Bleeding was a favorite remedy of the midwife's and she used it for almost every ailment, especially infections. In America there was no need to search in ponds for leeches; drugstores sold them. For respiratory infections, Magerou applied vendouzis. She heated water glasses with a tuft of burning cotton and placed them on the patient's back. The heat and pressure inside the glass drew up the flesh. If the patient were very ill, Magerou cut crosses in the swelled flesh to drain off the "bad" blood. To cure jaundice she made a small cut with a razor blade in the thin string of flesh connecting the inside of the upper lip with the tissue above the teeth. For abdominal pain attributed to a spleen that had grown and "traveled," Magerou nicked the skin of the abdomen drawing black blood and forcing the spleen to "go backwards." To stop bleeding Magerou used a small amount of soap or the scrapings of the inside of a leather belt on the wound, then applied pressure and a bandage. One of her most successful cures was called pakia


58

Utah Historical Quarterly

for backache presumably from pressure on the kidneys. The patient lay face down. Magerou clutched the flesh at the small of the back and deftly lifted. A small crack was heard, and the backache was gone. For colds and influenzas the midwife used vizikdnti, a powdered Spanish fly that produced blisters on the skin. With a quick twist of her fingers, Magerou broke the blisters and the "uncleanness" in the body broke out. The midwife was noted for Magerou, matriarch of the first setting bones. She mixed powderGreek families who settled in the Midvale—Bingham—Magna area. ed resin and egg white with clean Photograph furnished by sheared wool and bound this over Mrs. John Klekas and Mrs. L. O. McMichael. the set bones with cloth. A son was thrown off a horse in front of the Magna post office. While six people held him, his mother set the broken arm and applied her cast. Magerou used no anesthetics except whiskey. Whatever whiskey was left over, she poured on her hair to make it strong and to take away headaches. Two men owed their legs to her. A Greek baker in Garfield had mashed his knee; the surgeon decided to amputate. The baker left the doctor's office and went to Magerou. She used her remedies and "in a week the baker was walking about." A justice of the peace had crushed his leg at Mercur and sought the midwife's help rather than submit to an amputation. Again she was able to save a leg. In the second and third decade of the century, Greek brides came in increasing numbers. Magerou's name was known by all. Babies were brought to her from distances after doctors had despaired of them. Sometimes she traveled to families; she spent four months with one Nevada family whose mother had died. During these years the Mageras family moved several times, to Murray, Tooele, and again to Magna. Wherever she went, patients followed.


Magerou, The Greek Midwife

59

The Magna Greek Town became established in the western side of the town. All of the houses had gardens, and the mothers delighted in the plentiful irrigation water that ran down the alleys of the back yards. Magerou spent her spare time tending her garden. The canning of fruit and vegetables, unknown in Greece and only just now being introduced there because of the prohibitive expense of bottles and caps, was another joy to her. Magerou prepared well for her large family. When making hilopetes, thin egg noodles cut in small squares, she began by breaking thirty dozen eggs. As the immigrants lived longer in America, they began to call in the local doctors. Also Magerou found that what she had been doing was called "practicing medicine without a license." She began assisting doctors in deliveries, more often than being in charge herself. At times babies were born before the doctor arrived, and he had only to sign the birth certificate. Several doctors delivered the babies and left Magerou to cut the cord and to finish the process. Among the doctors she worked for were: Drs. Russell Owens, George McBride, T. C. Weggeland, Stephen Netolicky, Dean A. Moffat, Phillips M. Chase, Burton Musser, and much later, Owen Reese. They called her "Mamma" or "Grandma" and understood her version of English. The large number of births among the immigrant people coincided with an increasing prejudice against these "unassimilable aliens." The anti-immigrant propaganda of the World War I years and the earlytwenties' campaigns against the South European immigrants by newspapers, the American Legion, and the Ku Klux Klan completely turned the isolate Greeks inward. Hostility exploded into night raids through Greek Town, crosses burning on the foothills of the Qquirrh Mountains, and Klan marches from the graveyard down through Main Street. The mothers became afraid to call in the American doctors. Whisperings became hysterical fears: the doctors could be Klan members themselves. Many women returned to Magerou. For those who remained faithful to their doctors, Magerou, instinctively protective of them, minimized the importance of the Klan, even after a group of young Greeks followed the marchers to the town park and tore off their robes. "Leading citizens" were exposed. The Klan's influence waned and slowly relationships were restored. Children of Klan members and those of immigrants formed lasting friendships during the Depression years. For the majority of Greek mothers, however, the pattern set by their Greek Town enclave and the


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events of those years was never altered; their husbands, children, and Magerou were their only tenuous link with non-Greek life. Magerou's life, in contrast, was not diminished by the prejudice she found in America. She had faith in time's solution to problems. The many pictures of her show a smiling, serene woman appearing much younger than she was. The Mideastern ach and hand-wringing against Fate had barely brushed her nature. She was stoic over the deaths of her own infants and family reverses. She endured without knowing that she did. The feast days of her church gave her life order and happiness. The Mageras family celebrated each holiday twice. Magerou was Greek Orthodox; her husband Roman Catholic. The children born in Greece were baptized in the Greek Orthodox church. The children born in America were baptized in the Catholic church. The Greek Orthodox church in Salt Lake City was consecrated in 1905, but the eighteen miles of travel were a hardship. The household observed both the Julian Calendar of the Eastern Orthodox and the Gregorian Calendar of the Roman Catholics. The traditional lamb of the Greeks was followed by the roasted pig of Austrian Christmases and Easters. A few weeks before New Years, the family planted wheat in a coffee can. According to Austrian folklore, if the wheat was up by New Years Day, a good year would follow. Candles were lighted about the can of green shoots and placed on the dinner table. On Greek Easters, Nick Mageras butchered lambs at his daughter's farm for many Greek families. The lambs were put on spits and barbecued in a long row. The feast of Agape (Christian Love) was eaten at the Klekas farm for several decades. Soon the generation Magerou brought to life was beginning to marry. Another world war began. Many of her grandsons were soldiers and sailors. In 1946 her husband died at the age of eighty-three. Magerou continued going wherever she was called. She was actively working until her late seventies. She died in 1950 at the age of eighty-three. Her progeny includes seven children,10 thirty-seven grandchildren, and sixty-five great-grandchildren. At all gatherings of the remnants of the first Greek generation in America, anecdotes about Magerou are told. She is a symbol of the color and uniqueness of Greek immigrant life. 10

Helen, Annie, Wilma, Tony, Millie, John, and Eva.


Mary Howard as she appeared when she was mayor of Kanab.

An Example of Women in Politics BY MARY

W.

HOWARD

.s our election was intended as a burlesA que, and we all treated it as a joke and had no idea of qualifying, but YOU HAVE NO DOUBT HEARD,

the leading men all insisted upon our doing so, they pledged us their support, volunteered to secure our bonds, and left us without an excuse, so we consented to try and do the best we could, and as we are now nearD u r i n g the years 1912-14 the city of K a n a b , U t a h , was governed by a n all-woman T o w n Board. T h e following history of their election a n d what they accomplished was written by Mrs. M a r y W. H o w a r d , who was chairman of the board and mayor of K a n a b . Originally published in The Improvement Era for July 1914, this article is reprinted with the permission of the editors of the Era.


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ing the end of our two-year term we feel that we have accomplished a little good. In fact, our supporters say that we have done more for the town than all the male Boards they have ever had. They urge us to run again at the coming election, but we are not at all selfish, and are perfectly willing to share the honors with others. We are in hopes they will elect other ladies to fill the vacancies, as we know they are perfectly able to carry on the work; and, in fact, are better able, because the men are away from home most of the time looking after their sheep, cattle, etc., and the town is left without any supervision. It is a noted fact that nine-tenths of the people never knew before who the members of the Town Board were, or that there even was a Board, but you can ask any child on the street who the present Board is, and they can tell you every one of our names for we are discussed in every home for good or ill. Don't think for one moment that we haven't any opposition to contend with, for we feel sometimes that we have more than our share of it. Some members meet it every day in their own homes, but they are all women of character and have been able to hold their own. They have come out on top of every skirmish so far, but it makes it very unpleasant for them, as you may know. Our first official act was to increase the license of the peddlers and traveling merchants who infested our town to the detriment of our local merchants whom we felt it our duty to protect. Second. We prohibited cattle, horses, and other animals from running loose upon the streets. Third. Prohibited any person from building any corral, stable, or feed yard within fifty feet of any street or public highway. Fourth. Placed a tax on dogs and had all killed that were not registered before a certain date. Fifth. Prohibited the use of flippers and slings within town limits, thus protecting our feathered friends. Sixth. We had the cemetery surveyed and plotted and are now giving deeds to all parties who pay a small fee for the lots. Seventh. We purchased lumber and built bridges over all the irrigating ditches in town. Eighth. We joined with the Irrigation Company and built a huge dike above town to protect our homes and property from the floods which have been a menace to our town ever since it was settled. This enterprise cost $1,000 and we are paying one-half of the amount.


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We appointed a clean-up day and offered a prize of $10 for the cleanest and best kept street and sidewalk surrounding any home, $5 for the second best and $2.50 for the third best. You will know that this meant a lot of work for the people, as most everyone owns a quarter of a block and lives on the corner, so they had to clean two sides of the street. Tenth. We prohibited all foot races, horse races, ball games and all other noisy sports on the Sabbath day. Eleven. Prohibited gambling and all games of chance. Twelve. We passed a liquor ordinance which was prepared by the Municipal League of Utah, under the new liquor law passed by the last legislature. Our greatest trouble has been in fighting the liquor evil, which is a terror to our town. A year ago now, liquor was being shipped in here on the U.S. mail, which carries express as well, and our town was full of it. We could get no redress through the course, so we wrote direct to the Postmaster General, at Washington, and explained our situation, and asked him if it was necessary for us to put up with such conditions. He answered that the matter would be investigated immediately, and in a very short time the mail contractors all along the line had strict orders not to carry another drop of liquor from Marysvale to Kanab, so we have not had much trouble from that source since, though it is still shipped in by freight and other ways. They know we are on the look-out, and they have to be pretty sly about it. Our marshal seized twelve gallons at one time which was addressed to different parties; some of them were able to prove to the satisfaction of the justice of the peace, though not to ours, that it was sent for medical purposes, and were allowed to keep theirs, and Kanab, Utah, in the 1900's. Between the years 1912-14, the Town Board was composed entirely of women. Photograph from the Utah State Historical Society.


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the rest about six gallons, was poured out on the ground in front of the court house. September 12, 1912, we tendered a reception to His Excellency, Governor William Spry, and his party, who were touring this p a r t of the state at the time. M a y 16, 1913, we held a " G r e a t e r U t a h Development" meeting, and h a d an excellent program. Could you have witnessed the enthusiasm on that occasion you would know t h a t we are loyal citizens of our beloved state. September 10, 1913, we prepared a great fruit festival, in honor of the U t a h Automobile Club, on their pioneer trip to the G r a n d Canyon of the Colorado, as they are boosting for better roads into our country, and t h a t is one of our greatest needs. W e sent to Dixie for grapes and peaches, furnished the melons ourselves and treated the entire town. N o w these are a few of the many things t h a t we have done, though there are very many other little things that we have tried to do for our civic improvement. W e have always been united in our labors, have laid aside our personal feelings and always worked for the public good. Mrs. King of the U t a h Legislature, writing to us about our work, asked if we were married women of families. I told her emphatically yes, that each of us h a d from two to seven children, and that three of the five members have given birth to babies during our term of office. W e do all our own home work, make our own carpets, rugs, quilts, soap a n d all other things that pioneer women have to do. I clerk in the store p a r t of the time, and do my own work, which at this season includes bottling fruit, preserving, pickling, drying corn, etc., etc., between times; and then there are my religious duties which I try not to neglect. I a m local superintendent of Religion Class, teacher of the second intermediate department in Sunday school and treasurer of the Relief Society. I, and my two boys, which is all the family I have, each received a badge of honor for never being late nor absent from Sunday school last year, a n d have m a d e the same record so far this year, so you will see that I haven't much leisure.


Utah's Leading Ladies of the Arts BY RAYE PRICE

Emma Lucy Gates Bowen in LaTraviata.


T

of covered wagons was loaded with seed, powder, foodstuffs, clothing, portable furniture, and farming implements — only that which would help to make civilization of a wilderness, jewelry and trinkets, table linens, and heirloom silver, had been sold or abandoned with other luxuries in the tragic flight from Nauvoo, Illinois, It was a serious journey, there was no room for frills, but the Arts went West with the Mormon pioneers. Days on the trail were fraught with rivers to be forded, oxen to be driven, wagons to be jostled over rutted mountain tracks and endless prairie, yet evening bonfires rang with music of Captain William Pitt's Brass Band and blistered feet danced gaily on the frozen ground. 1 A stanza of poetry, the soothing lyrics of a hymn, sounds of flute or trumpet — and the ordeal was made more bearable. •HE LONG CHAIN

Thomas L. Kane described it: Some of their wind instruments, indeed, were uncommonly full and puretoned, and in that clear dry air could be heard to a great distance. It had the strangest effect in the world, to listen to their sweet music winding over the uninhabited country. Something in the style of a Moravian deathtone blown at day-break, but altogther unique. It might be when you were hunting a ford over the Great Platte, the dreariest of all wild rivers, perplexed among the far-reaching sandbars and curlew shallows of its shifting bed; — the wind rising would bring you the first faint thought of a melody; and, as you listened, borne down upon the gust that swept past you a cloud of the dry sifted sands, you recognized it — perhaps a homeloved theme of Henry Proch or Mendelssohn. Mendelssohn Bartholdy, away there is the Indian Marches! 2

And when the exhausted emigrants had reached their new Zion, when small huts were thrown up against the elements, streets laid out in geometric regularity, and seedlings rooted to insure survival in a desert land, the Arts were present. There were poems and hymns by "Zion's Poetess," Eliza Roxey Snow. The Deseret Musical and Dramatic Association was formed in 1850 and their first play, Robert Macaire, was presented in the Bowery in 1851. Eighteen fifty-two saw completion of the Social Hall, where newcomers were astounded to discover Dominico Ballo, a former West Mrs. Price, resident of Salt Lake City, is the author of a bpok on Park City just recently published by the University of U t a h Press. ' R o b e r t B. Day, They Made Mormon History (Salt Lake City, 1968), 9 8 ; The Contributor, XII (July, 1891), 334. 2 Day, They Made Mormon History, 9 9 ; T h o m a s L. K a n e , The Mormons: A Discourse Delivered Before the Historical Society of Pennsylvania, March 26, 1850 (Philadelphia, 1850).


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Point band-master and graduate of the Milan Conservatory of Music, conducting the Social Hall Orchestra in far-off, isolated Great Salt Lake City. In the sixties Joseph H. Ridges built the great tabernacle organ and "made possible a culture in music that could not have existed without it." 3 The Salt Lake Theatre raised its curtain on a new dramatic era in Utah in 1862. Fitz Hugh Ludlow, a traveling journalist, found little to praise about the Mormons, but did admit that The Opera-House was a subject we could agree upon. I was greatly astonished to find in the desert heart of the continent a place of public amusement which for capacity, beauty and comfort has no superior in America, except the opera-houses of New York, Boston, and Philadelphia. 4

Jtossessing beauty, comfort, and capacity were not the Salt Lake Theatre's only distinctions; it was on this stage that one of America's most famous actresses made her first appearance. To say that an actress made her theatrical debut as a roast of beef, peaked her career in the role of a little boy, and made one of her final performances disguised as a barnyard cock would not be saying much — unless it was added that the star in question was the great Maude Adams. She was Maude Kiskadden at birth, in Salt Lake City, November 11, 1872. Her parents were Asenath Ann (Annie) Adams and James Henry Kiskadden. Annie was the daughter of Barnabas and Julia Adams, staunch pioneers of the Nauvoo exodus, but James was a Gentile. So, when it was decided that Annie and James would marry, it seemed diplomatic to perform the ceremony at the old Adams home in Iowa. Perhaps it is significant that on their wedding journey to San Francisco, Annie and James were on the first transcontinental railroad and witnessed the "Wedding of the Rails" at Promontory, Utah, May 10, 1869, for their only child5 was later to be claimed by Americans from coast to coast.6 Annie Kiskadden was involved in Utah theatre productions from the time she played childrens' roles in the Social Hall until she became 3 Alice Louise Reynolds, "Art in U t a h in Pioneer Days," in Max Binheim, ed., Women of the West: A Series of Biographical Sketches of Living Eminent Women in the Eleven Western States . . . (Los Angeles, 1928), 170. 4 Fitz H u g h Ludlow, "Among the Mormons," Atlantic Monthly (April, 1864), 490. 5 They lost twin boys in infancy. 6 " M a u d e Adams spent so much of her time in New York and in the East of the United States that Easterners feel she belonged to them. O u t in the West they think of her as their own, for it was there that she was born in 1872, and lived as a child, in a most fascinating period of its history." Phyllis Robbins, The Young Maude Adams (Francetown, New H a m p shire, 1959), 17-18.


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Painting by S. de Tvanowski of Maude Adams in her most famous role, of Peter Pan. The painting is owned by the Utah State Institute of Fine Arts. The insert is a photograph of Maude Adams in the first year of her career. The photograph is from the George D. Pyper Collection, Western Americana, University of Utah Library.


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a leading lady on the Salt Lake Theatre stage. Unlike other Mormon settlers, whose "playacting" was a pleasant avocation, Annie took her dramatics seriously. It is not surprising that her precocious daughter should follow in her footsteps. It was late in the summer of 1873. Little Maude was in a cradle backstage at the Salt Lake Theatre while her mother performed in the play The Lost Child. One scene called for a platter to be carried on-stage with a sleeping child in place of a roast, but, at the time of the cue, the regular baby was having a noisy tantrum. Annie, waiting in the wings, offered her nine-month old offspring as a stand-in. Maude was place on the platter and carried in, but, rather than stay asleep, she sat up and looked around in fascination and her first triumph in front of the footlights was accomplished.7 Miss Adams 8 could not have remembered her first performance, but she always remembered the persons who helped her along the way. Phil Margetts, a blacksmith who acted at the Salt Lake Theatre in his spare time, had been the one who insisted upon using a real child, rather than a doll, for the platter scene. Years later, when Miss Adams brought her company to Salt Lake City, she heard that Phil was ill and would not be able to come to the theatre he had done so much to build. She therefore arranged to have him carried on a stretcher to a place where he could enjoy the play.9 Apparently, this early emphasis on realism influenced Miss Adams. At the age of five, when she played her first speaking role in San Francisco, she was prepared for the "make-believe" of the scripts but insisted that her properties be authentic. When she was told to fetch a pitcher of beer, she refused to return carrying the traditional cold tea, and still be obliged to call it beer. She won her point, to the satisfaction of the actors destined to drink it . . . . Besides, she liked to see it fizz, and to watch the froth spill over the top. This was the early start of what was to be her greatest interest in the theatre: the staging of the plays—the production end. 10

Perfectionism carried over into her acting as well. When playing Susanne opposite John Drew in The Masked Ball, she was required to do a tipsy scene. 7 8

Ibid., 32.

Because her father objected somewhat to her theatrical career, she adopted her mother's maiden n a m e professionally. 9 Robbins, Young Maude Adams, 32-33. 10 Ibid., 64-65. Miss Adams became very interested in stage lighting, and in the 1920's she invented high-powered incandescent lamps in the General Electric laboratories. H e r lamps later m a d e colored movies possible. She received little money or credit for this invention, but refused her lawyers' advice to sue General Electric. Phyllis Robbins, Maude Adams, An Intimate Portrait (New York, 1956), 203-7, 212.


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She had skirted vulgarity in all of the rough and tumble days in the West. She had been pathetically revolted as a child by a drunken woman taken to jail by the police in San Francisco. Every time she swayed it seemed vulgar to her. Then one day at rehearsal someone gave her a long-stemmed rose. As she held it, she noticed it swayed in a "dignified manner." So she and the rose went home together to practice. 11

A career as legendary as Maude Adams's is well chronicled — her triumphs in San Francisco billed as "La Petite Maude" in La Belle Russe, Across the Continent, Barney's Courtship, Fritz, and others; with Charles Frohman's stock company in All the Comforts of Home, Men and Women, Lost Paradise, My Geraldine, and Diplomacy; and John Drew's leading lady in The Masked Ball, The Butterflies, Christopher, Jr., etc.; and in her own company with such plays as The Little Minister, Romeo and Juliet, Quality Street, Peter Pan, and Chantecler. Although her time in Salt Lake City was relatively brief,12 her triumphs have been shared in spirit by Utah thespians throughout the years. Until the old Salt Lake Theatre was razed, initiation ceremonies for the local chapter of Theta Alpha Phi dramatic fraternity were held in the famous Green Room over Maude Adams's cradle. 13 In 1909, when the Mormon Tabernacle Choir was on tour in New York, Miss Adams arranged for complimentary seats for her Brooklyn performance of Peter Pan. When the curtain fell, the choir stood and sang "Auld Lang Syne" in her honor, and the entire audience joined in the singing. Perhaps the inspiration she evoked is best described in Miss Adams's own reaction to her most famous role, Peter Pan. It was . . . a situation absolutely new to the stage to make an assemblage of people suddenly a part of the play, and to call upon them to respond with the same readiness the trained actor would take up his cue . . . . But when an actress steps down to the footlights and says, "Clap your hands and wave your handkerchiefs, if you would save Tinker Bell," there is no means in the world of knowing what the people on the other side of the footlights are going to do. . . . There was a pause — it seemed to me a long interminable pause, and I shuddered. Then, all at once, the wonderful thing happened. In a moment everybody became an actor in the play. The house broke into the applause that I had called for; they waved their handkerchiefs, and " J . K e i t h Melville, Feminine Contributions to Mormon Culture: The Mormon Drama and Maude Adams (Provo, U t a h , 1965), 10. 12 She was born in Salt Lake City, moved to Virginia City, Nevada, when two years old, and to San Francisco, California, at three. At ten she returned to Salt Lake City to live with her g r a n d m o t h e r and attend the Collegiate Institute (now Westminster College) for two years before beginning her stage career in earnest. 13 Interview with Lila Eccles Brimhall of Salt Lake City.


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Tinker Bell's life was saved. It was glorious, a happy, a triumphant moment for me and I believe that the audience experienced the same delight that I did.14

Maude Adams never married. There were rumors that she was the mistress or secret bride of Charles Frohman, but one of her biographers wrote "She has never married, or rather she has been much married ever since she can remember to her profession . . . . Her thoughts of romance, her close friends say, have always taken the direction of effective stage scenes."15 In 1918 Miss Adams retired, due to ill health and exhaustion. It was during this time that she did her work with stage lighting. In 1931 she staged a short comeback and made her final Salt Lake City appearance in The Merchant of Venice at Kingsbury Hall on the University of Utah campus. She became professor of drama at Stephens College, Columbia, Missouri, from 1937 until 1946. She died at her little farm in the Catskill Mountains on July 16, 1953.

"Uitah's

first lady of music" 16 combined a brilliant international operatic career with a determination to foster music in her home state. That Emma Lucy Gates Bowen possessed talent and devotion to home and church is not surprising as she was a granddaughter of Brigham Young and daughter of Susa Young Gates, an accomplished writer, organist, head of the choir at Brigham Young Academy, and in charge of the Music Department at the academy. 17 At the age of fourteen, having won the Welsh Eisteddfod competition held in the Salt Lake Tabernacle by performing Gottschalk's "Last Hope" on the piano, Lucy Gates18 was bent on a musical career. When she was eighteen, she joined Dr. John A. Widtsoe and his wife Leah (her sister) on a trip to Germany. Miss Gates was to study piano under a Professor Freiberg. One day the professor entered her practice room unobserved, and "heard her singing to herself. Impressed by the beauty of her untrained voice, he advised that she take vocal lessons."19 14

Robbins, Young Maude Adams, 142-43. Robbins, Maude Adams, An Intimate Portrait, 213. 16 Brigham Young University, Dedication and Naming of 22 Buildings, Brigham Young University, May 26, 1954 ([Provo, 1954]), 54. 17 E m m a Lucy was born November 5, 1880, at St. George, U t a h . 18 H e r professional name. 19 B.Y.U., Dedication and Naming of 22 Buildings, 54-55. This quotation places the event at the Berlin Conservatory of Music where Miss Gates studied in 1899, but, since she had already decided upon a vocal career at this time, I feel the incident took place in 1898 when she was studying with Professor Freiberg. 15


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On November 8, 1898, she wrote her parents, I have not fully decided which I shall take as a specialty but feel in my heart that it will be vocal. I have thought it all over and this is what it is; first my whole soul seems to be brought out more when I sing. I love to sing and I think one of the greatest pleasures of my future life will be in singing praises to God in His Holy Temples. There is no good Mormon teacher or singer in Utah. 2 0

The following May Susa Young Gates and her mother, Lucy B. Young, attended the International Council of Women in London, England, and Miss Gates joined them there. It was decided that she would apply to the Berlin Royal Conservatory of Music and her grandmother would accompany her as chaperone. At the conservatory, she was tutored by Professor Adolphe Schulze, head of the school, but, when he commented that she had "a very sweet voice" and said, "I don't know whether you could earn your living by singing or not, but you wanted to be teacher, didn't you?" 21 temperament got the best of Miss Gates and she wrote her parents, He thinks nobody can be a great singer unless he has a large voice. I have noticed so much in all of his speakings of his pupils he says, "She is my best soloist and she has a fine large voice," and generally they are the ones that make the most noise.22

After six months, she quit the conservatory and started her tutelage under Madame Blanche Corelli. Of all her coaches Lucy Gates was most indebted to Madame Corelli. Professor Shulze had despaired of her small voice, but Madame Corelli devised a new method to strengthen it. She was to have one halfhour lesson daily, no practicing, and not to attempt actual songs for three months. Within ten months Madame Corelli arranged an audition with a famous concert director, who claimed that Miss Gates was for opera and possessed the voice, figure, face, and artistic sense to be a great singer.23 In later years study with other coaches in the United States and Paris strained her voice until it failed. Miss Gates returned to Madame Corelli and her singing was restored in five months. 20 John Louis Coray, "Emma Lucy Gates (Bowen), Soprano — Her Accomplishments in Opera and Concert" (master's thesis, Brigham Young University, 1956), 11. 21 Ibid., 15. 22 Ibid.

23

Ibid.


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Emma Lucy Gates Bowen as she appeared in various operas. From left to right Die Entfuhring, Rigoletto, and the last two are from Philine. Photographs from the Widtsoe Family Collection, Utah State Historical Society.

After many years of study, travel back and forth between Europe and the United States, and frequent visits to Utah, Miss Gates made her debut as Anchen in Der Freischuetz, conducted by Dr. Carl Muck at the Royal Opera House in Berlin. As far as she knew, she was the first American girl to debut at the Royal Opera House in a role that demanded dialogue in a foreign tongue.24 Two years later she transferred to His Majesty's Royal Opera House in Kassel, where she sang coloratura roles as prima donna until the advent of World War I. During her four years in Germany, "she sang more than fifty roles, ranging from 'Queen of the Night,' the highest role written for a coloratura soprano, to 'Carmen,' written for mezzo-soprano."25 She was invited to perform at Kaiser Wilhelm's palaces, was guest artist in many opera houses, and made numerous concert appearances. Wartime brought an end to Lucy Gates's international career, but it heralded the fruition of her long-time goal of fostering music in Utah. "Ibid., 42. 25 B.Y.U., Dedication

and Naming of 22 Buildings, 55.


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She was a leading music teacher and, in 1915, became the first prima donna impressario to organize her own company when she started the Lucy Gates Opera Company with her brother B. Cecil Gates. 26 With the purpose of bringing grand opera to the Rocky Mountains, she became organizer, stage manager, and artistic director of the group. Marriage came late, but after becoming the bride of widower Albert E. Bowen and stepmother to his twin sons Albert and Robert, she commented, "looking back on my life now, if I had to choose between home and children and a career, I'd take the home and children." 27 Her reputation as a homemaker and gourmet cook thrived, but Lucy Gates was ever the prima donna. Her friends remember her "holding court," seated on a bag of potatoes in ZCMI grocery department, calling her order good-naturedly to a host of scurrying salesclerks.28 She was hostess to visiting musical dignitaries and often entertained them at her home after their concerts. It is said that following a delightful luncheon, Alec Templeton, the blind pianist, was asked what he thought of Lucy Gates. He answered that she was probably heavy, wore a good deal of jewelry, and "had a bit of an ego." 29 On October 25, 1948, Lucy Gates closed her musical career when a testimonial concert was given in her honor at the Assembly Hall on Temple Square. An overflow crowd, whose admission fees were donated to the Utah Symphony at her request, and numerous letters and telegrams paid her tribute. Arthur Judson, a leading musical manager from New York, wrote T o m e h e r artistry as a singer has been most enjoyable, b u t w h a t she has been able to d o in Salt L a k e City is of m u c h greater importance. W h a t we need is n o t so m a n y touring artists b u t m e n a n d w o m e n of great musical ideals w h o will m a k e their influence felt in their o w n city. 30

When the concert ended, Lucy Gates mischieviously responded to a standing ovation by remarking T h e last time I sang was La Traviata a t the last performance a t t h e Salt L a k e T h e a t r e before it was torn down. A n d t h a t was the last time I remember, right off, t h a t I sang w i t h orchestra. I t w o u l d n ' t be fitting for m e to sing a little ditty with the piano. So with t h e consent of M r s . ^Zina Hickman, "Royalty Has Heard Her Voice," Salt Lake Telegram, July 26 1937. Ibid. 28 Interview with Miss Becky Almond of Salt Lake City. 29 Ibid. 27

"'Testimonial Concert in H o n o r of E m m a Lucy Gates Bowen" (Recording Salt Lake City, October 25, 1948), p a r t 5.


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Wooten 31 I will repeat just the 1-a-a-a-st bit of the same thing they have just sung.32

The encore was her last public performance. Lucy Gates died April 30, 1951. For her funeral her long-time friend and accompanist, Miss Becky Almond, wrote, To present a song in a way that satisfied her high ideals was to establish a standard; she took into consideration everything; the composer, the musical conception, the projection. It had to be a fusion of all things . . . and above all it must impart a message or it was worthless.

Veery little has been written about artist Mary Teasdel, but, since she was the first Utah woman to be accepted in the French Salon (at a time when society frowned upon women having a profession or achieving much distinction) it seems fitting that she take her place among Utah's Leading Ladies of the Arts. Miss Teasdel was born in Salt Lake City on November 6, 1863, to Mr. and Mrs. S. P. Teasdel. Her father was a well-to-do merchant, proud that he was able to provide his three sons and two daughters with a beautiful home and the cultural opportunities of education and travel. Mary inherited aesthetic tendencies from both parents, but was also of a practical nature. She studied art and music at the University of Deseret, graduating in 1886, and painted under the instruction of J. T. Harwood in 1891. Her father insisted that it was his place to support his daughter, but Mary always banked a portion of her allowance with the dream that some day she would study abroad. Her frugal nature was fortunate, for her father's trusting way with debtors eventually led to financial ruin. Unable to collect a number of accounts, his business failed when a contractor for the railroad to Park City became insolvent and could not pay a bill amounting to thousands of dollars. Tragedy compounded a few months later when two of Mary's brothers died and she lost her only sister in childbirth. However, Mary's savings and a legacy left her by a brother allowed her to realize her ambitions. In 1897 she and a friend, Cora Hooper (later Mrs. Ernest Eldredge), headed for New York where she spent the winter studying at the National Academy. Paris followed two years later. 31 32

Mrs. Wooten had performed in the preceding concert. "Testimonial Concert," part 14.


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Mary and a companion, May Jennings Farlow, found Paris stimulating but not an easy place for women to study. There were separate studios for men and women, and facilities were dirty — barren rooms furnished with a few wooden stools and a model's platform. There were no extra frills in the women's studios, but prices were double; the proprietors claimed it was more expensive to keep them cleaner for "fussy" women.33 After applying three months in advance, Mary was accepted in the classes of Jules Simon. She took two of three possible periods, studying four hours in the mornings and evenings.34 Studio facilities improved appreciably when James McNeil Whistler moved from England to Paris and opened a spotlessly clean studio in a quaint old house with tinted walls and harmonizing draperies and furnishings. Mary enjoyed classes 33

Alice Merrill H o m e , Devotees Lake City, 1914), 60. "Ibid., 6 1 .

and Their

Shrines:

A Hand

m

Watercolor titled "Monday Wash Day," by Mary Teasdale. The painting is owned by the Utah State Institute of Fine Arts.

Book of Utah

Art

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with the immaculate Whistler, whose black kid gloves darted over a picture when he was criticizing. 35 During the summers eight or ten girls pooled resources to secure a teacher and rent a house in some scenic location. M a r y favored her sketch classes in the old fortified town of Normandy, where she summered in a lovely farm house with a bright little garden. Every afternoon the group would walk three miles to the river, picnicking along the way, then stroll homeward, carefully studying subtle twilight effects so they could make the two memory sketches required at class next morning. 3 6 Admission to the French Salon was an achievement coveted by late nineteenth century artists; Miss Teasdel was the first U t a h woman and second U t a h artist 37 to achieve this honor when a group of her ivory miniatures was accepted. T h e next season, one of her oil portraits was added to the collection, and the following summer Miss Teasdel became the only U t a h painter to exhibit in the International French Exposition when two of her ivory miniatures were placed in the show. M a r y remained in France three years (1899-1902). Shortly after her return to Salt Lake City, Mary's father died and she devoted her energies to her mother and spent a year in Holland with her. Miss Teasdel then opened a private studio and taught painting at West High School. Governor Heber M . Wells appointed her to the board of the U t a h Art Institute, and she was later elected president of that body. An impressionistic scene of City Creek Canyon in autumn brought her the grand prize at the U t a h State Fair in 1908, and during her stay in U t a h she won all major prizes offered by the U t a h Art Institute. M a n y of her paintings are in private collections, two h a n g in the State Capitol, and thirty-two works are at the Carnegie Public Library in Smithfield, Utah, and the University of U t a h . She died on April 11, 1937, in Los Angeles, California.

M

.aud M a y Babcock championed women's rights and insisted that "our women must and are freeing themselves from the false ideals of our grandmothers that little girls should 'sit still,' 'be quiet,' 'fold their hands,' and grow u p 'little ladies.' " 3 8 But she deplored inadequacy. I n a talk 35

Ibid. Ibid., 62. 37 Sculptor Cyrus Dallin preceded her. 38 Ronald Quayle Fredrickson, " M a u d M a y Babcock and the Department of Elocution at the University of U t a h " (master's thesis, University of U t a h , 1965). 30


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presented at the National Speech Association in November 1950, Miss Babcock said, "I told my students with all the power I could command that unless they were willing to do some honest thinking that they would fail to complete the first step . . . . Yes, I found that asking people to think was asking a great deal." It was this combination of crusader and perfectionist that made her an inspiration to students for over forty-six years. Miss Babcock was born in East Worcester, New York, on May 2, 1867. Her family moved to Binghamton when she was ten. The petite, blue-eyed girl was rather frail and, as she matured, some unexplicable affliction weakened her voice so it was a great shock to her family and teachers when, at fifteen, she delivered a stirring Webster oration to her class — her voice returned, clear and strong. It was then that she decided to be an elocutionist.39 She pursued her goal by earning a bachelor's degree in elocution at the Philadelphia National School of Oratory (1886) ; receiving a diploma from the American Academy of Dramatic Art (1890) ; studying under Alfred Ayers, Eleanor Goergen, and Franklin Sargent; and undertaking independent study in London and Paris. With the light calisthenics and Delsarte system of exercise required in her oratorical classes, Miss Babcock noticed a gradual improvement in her health and became impressed with the importance of further study and experiments in the line of physical culture. In time her condition was perfect. Following her schooling, Miss Babcock taught in New York schools and private homes and, in 1890, started to teach practical physical culture in the Hemingway Gymnasium at the Harvard Summer School. It was during her second year there she met Susa Young Gates. Mrs. Gates, daughter of Brigham Young and editor of the Young Woman's Journal, had come to Cambridge to take Miss Babcock's summer class. The two women became close friends and, as Miss Babcock told a Deseret News reporter, She gave most wonderful descriptions of the land a m o n g t h e m o u n t a i n s , the beauty of its scenery a n d the intelligence of its people. Above all this c h a r m i n g w o m a n spoke of the intense need of physical culture a n d elocution, a n d t h a t one coming here now would be, as it were, a missionary or chief reaper in this field already white for the harvest. 4 0 39 "Literary Department: Biographical Sketch of Maud May Babcock, B.E.," The Young Woman's Journal, The Organ of the Y.L.M.I. Associations, V (June, 1894), 410. 40 Fredrickson, "Maud May Babcock."


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By 1892 Miss Babcock had accepted an invitation to teach at the University of Utah at a salary of $500.00 a year, canceling a position as supervisor of Physical Education and Oral Expression in the Bridgeport, Connecticut, schools for three times the salary. She accepted the position despite warnings of friends "who considered the plan a fanatical and even a dangerous one." 41 Her former student, Ethel Baker Callas, imagined her arrival. She had taught at Harvard, lived in the East, she had every kind of refinement and culture and beautiful clothes. She never had a shoe that wasn't handmade. She came out here . . . muddy roads, everything dirty . . . imagine how it would be for her with those beautiful handmade shoes going down in the mud. 42

She intended to stay one year, but, within four months Maud Babcock was baptized into the Latter-day Saints Church. Mrs. John A. Widtsoe described Mrs. Babcock's reaction to her daughter's conversion when she was informed the following summer. Her mother was shocked beyond words to express her disappointment and disgust. She and her mother spent a whole night discussing the awful disgrace that Miss Babcock had brought upon her family . . . . She believed all the lies about the church. You couldn't convince her that Miss Babcock wasn't guarded, and that if she left the church, she'd be murdered, and that somebody was watching her all the time, and that she wouldn't leave because she daren't. 43

But Maud Babcock claimed her religion was the "keystone of her life"44 and, upon her death, she bequeathed her personal genealogical records and real estate valued at $10,000 to the Mormon church. 45 As the first woman to hold professorial rank at the University of Utah, Miss Babcock conducted classes in oratory, speech, and physical education. In 1893 her brother Dr. William Wayne Babcock, a noted specialist in spinal surgery and author of several medical texts, joined her in a supervisory capacity. Together, they purchased $2,500 worth of equipment from Harvard University and opened the first gymnasium in the remodeled Social Hall. Later, she started a physical education summer school which featured outstanding visiting professionals in the field. The blending of oratory and physical culture developed into what is reputed to have been the first university theatre in the United States.46 41

Ibid.

42

Interview with Ethel Baker Callas of Salt Lake City. 43 Fredrickson, " M a u d M a y Babock." "Deseret News (Salt Lake C i t y ) , M a r c h 15, 1935. 45 Salt Lake Tribune, J a n u a r y 23, 1955. 46 R a l p h Vary Chamberlin, The University of Utah, Years, 1850-1950 (Salt Lake City, 1960).

A History

of Its First

Hundred


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Maud May Babcock, and to the right is her physical culture class of 1895. Miss Babcock is standing, second from the left. Photographs from the Widtsoe Family Collection, Utah State Historical Society.

Miss Babcock directed her students in their first public performance in the Salt Lake Theatre May 23, 1893. While the production was largely a demonstration of drills with dumbbells, wands, Indian clubs, and dances, it possessed dramatic elements of picturization, selection, and climax.47 In 1895 "An Exhibition of Educational Gymnastics" combined drama and dance in a presentation based upon the Greek harvest festival of Eleusthenia, and by December 11, 1897, the newly organized University of Utah Dramatic Club offered the plays The Happy Pair and A Box of Monkeys in the Eighteenth Ward amusement hall. From that time one or two productions were given annually. Maud May Babcock received many honors. She was a guest director for the Washington Square and Provincetown Players (1916) ; organized the first University Little Theatre west of the Mississippi (1917); was largely responsible for the University of Utah being among the first to 47 Carl G. Markworth, Jr., "Prominent Teachers of the Speech Arts in U t a h Before 1920, Their Significant Theories a n d the Effect of Their Teachings U p o n Their Contemporaries" (master's thesis, Brigham Young University, 1958), Part I I I , " T h e Instruction of Non-Mormon Theories by Gentile Teachers," C h a p . 4, " M a u d M a y Babcock."


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offer undergraduate classes in dramatic production; was charter member, national president, and honorary member of several professional associations; served twenty years on the board of the State School for the Deaf and Blind; and, as president, was the first woman to preside over the trustees of a state institution. She was a friend of Maude Adams and Ruth St. Denis; Madame Chiang Kai-shek wrote her a personal note to thank her for her efforts in behalf of Chinese victims of the Sino-Japanese War; her letter to George Bernard Shaw procured for Joseph F. Smith an interview with the playwright, who had formerly written for catalogues of the renowned University of Utah Speech Department; she authored several books and traveled the world. But the inspiration she gave her students came on a very human level. Lila Eccles Brimhall remembers, "She opened up for all of us a whole new world of culture. And we needed it; it was a young age, where everyone had been struggling for survival and existence."48 Ethel Baker Callas said, I can remember when we used to go up to her cabin at Brighton. It seemed that we knew a woman who was different from our teacher . . . we knew the woman, the mother. We'd have to take nuts in our pockets and have raisins, prunes and all the things to give us energy for the hike. And she always had interesting foods to eat. She taught us how to eat artichokes, avacados, Chinese food . . . things we'd never heard of.49

Yet, professionally, Maud Babcock was all business. She insisted that her students select only pieces of literary excellence and then read them "with brains" — understand the thought, hold the thought, and give the thought. She claimed, "Literature was written to be voiced. A poem is not truly a poem until it is voiced by an accomplished artist. It must be born again." 50 Mrs. Brimhall remembers that she was so positive in her high standdards that "she dominated us so much that it took me a long time to dare to like anything without her approval." It was very difficult for Miss Babcock to retire. "The theatre has been my life," she said, "and it cannot stop." 51 But, when problems of old age made it necessary, her former students tried to soften the blow. A "University Theatre Golden Jubilee" was planned with a special production of Pygmalion directed by Miss Babcock. 48

Brimhall interview. Callas interview. 60 Markworth, "Prominent Teachers of the Speech Arts." 51 Salt Lake Tribune, M a y 5, 1946.

49


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Ethel Callas remembers, . . . she just wasn't able to function as she should. So to show you how m u c h love we all h a d for her, we would meet a n d H a r r y Allen would direct us a n d we would do all the blocking of the play so we knew all our positions a n d we'd go back with Miss Babcock a n d H a r r y would let her think she'd directed the whole thing.

And after all the hours of double rehearsals, the play triumphed. Mrs. Callas continued " I will never forget as long as I live the thrill it was for me that night in the theatre when all the bows were given to her and all of us with our heart a n d soul loving to know that she was honored . . . and H a r r y Allen taking nothing." 5 2 Miss Babcock died December 31, 1954. As a final tribute to her, the University of U t a h gave her n a m e to the little theatre on the lower level of the Pioneer Memorial T h e a t r e .

T.

he Arts could not flourish without patrons, and U t a h art had a dedicated champion in Alice Merrill H o m e . While the nineteenth century saw a flowering of literature in the New World with authors such as Emerson, Whitman, Thoreau, Melville, Hawthorne, Poe, and Longfellow, Mrs. H o m e despaired that "American art has not found opportunity to take root in the rich soils needful for its development because, from its very foundation, America has been passing through stages of rapid transition." 5 3 Yet she saw cultural kernels in activities of the Mormon pioneers and devoted her life to their nurture. "If art reigns in the home," she wrote, "there will grow out of it beautiful parks, streets, thoroughfares and cities." 54 Alice Merrill H o m e was born in a log cabin at Fillmore, Utah, on J a n u a r y 2, 1869, the fourth of fourteen children born to Clarence and Bathsheba Merrill. She attended classes in Fillmore's old rock schoolhouse and won prizes in reading and spelling before her eighth year, when she moved to Salt Lake City to live with her widowed grandmother, Mrs. George A. Smith. H e r grandfather h a d been historian for the L.D.S. church, and his home was furnished with many hand-crafted pieces, hand-woven fabrics, and mementos from his travels throughout the 52

Callas interview. Alice Merrill H o m e Gallery, Art Strands (Salt Lake City, 1931). 54 Alice Merrill H o m e , "For the Rights of Women of Zion and the Rights of Women of All Nations," Woman's Exponent, 29 (February 1, 1901). 53


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world. Mrs. Smith, an artist herself, encouraged young Alice's interest in art. Alice became an organizer at an early age. When she was nine, she started the Juvenile Association, which in later years became a part of the L.D.S. Primary Association; at seventeen she organized thirty young men and women in the Shakespeare Society for the purpose of reading, studying, and acting works of the Bard. She studied painting under J.T. Harwood and Mary Teasdel, and in 1887 graduated from the University of Deseret as valedictorian of her class. Marriage and six children 55 worked no barrier on Alice's cultural and civic interests. As she wrote, A life consumed by following society's unprofitable and foolish fashions has a parallel in that of a woman who never takes a moment for study and self-improvement, but makes herself a very slave to her home. The home must be kept sweet and clean, but the brain is as prone to get cobwebby as the best room. 56

Alice's brain was not "cobwebby." As a member of Utah's Third Legislature, she helped secure a congressional grant of land for the first buildings at the University of Utah; she introduced a bill to offer fouryear scholarships for students majoring in education with a provision that they remain to teach in the state for two years following graduation. 57 Mrs. Home was the first chairman of the Public Health Commission which sponsored a "Clean Milk for Utah" campaign, worked in behalf of smokeless fuel, was the first secretary and second president of the Daughters of Utah Pioneers, and served on the general board of the national Relief Society. Alice Home's greatest contributions were in the field of art. While in the legislature, she wrote a bill to establish the first state association in the country for the fostering of fine arts. The Utah Art Institute (now the Utah State Institute of Fine Arts) was established in 1899 "to advance the interests of the fine arts, including literature and music, in all their phases within the state of Utah." The bill called for annual art exhibits (not to be held in the same city twice in succession) and a collection of artworks owned and paid for by the state. This collection became known as the "Alice Art Collection," in her honor. 55 She married George H . H o m e on February 20, 1890. Their children were M a r y (Mrs. Leo C a h o o n W i n d e r ) , Dr. Lyman H o m e , Miss Virginia H o m e , Zorah (Mrs. Joseph G. J e p p s o n ) , a n d Dr. Albert H o m e . One son, George Henry, Jr., died in infancy. 58 H o m e , "For the Rights of W o m e n , " Woman's Exponent, 29 (February 1, 1901). 57 Previous scholarships had been for two years.


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The state sponsored shows in Salt Lake City, Ogden, Logan, Provo, and the first exhibition in Springville High School. The Utah Agricultural College and Brigham Young U n i v e r s i t y held winter exhibits which were so enthusiastically attended that children from nearby farming communities came to them in large bobsleighs.58 When "hard times" caused the governor to refuse to appoint a gov'i erning board of the Utah Art Institute, the exhibitions ceased and art sales rapidly declined. Alice was furAlice Merrill Home, patron of the ious; she said that the state seemed arts. Photograph from the to be able to buy cars for all of their Widtsoe Family Collection, Utah State Historical Society. departments, but could not help the artists.59 Alice Merrill Home devised many ways of helping artists. She wrote a program of art study for the Relief Society, believing if art were taken to older people, children would be influenced.60 After two years the series was canceled, but a portion of the text was published in 1914 under the title Devotees and Their Shrines: A Hand Book of Utah Art. The book was later adopted as a text in the state public schools and has long been a primary source of material on early Utah artists. She also wrote a children's play Columbus, Westward Ho! She believed in introducing art throughout the state and often carried pictures to sparcely settled outlying communities. When artist John Hafen died, Mrs. Home arranged a memorial exhibition of his works at the Layfayette School. When J. T. Harwood moved to California, she gathered his works for a show at Webster School. Exposing school children to art works was one of her greatest ambitions. She loaned her private collection to West High School, West Junior High School, and Washington School. Mrs. Home did a little bargaining when she was asked to serve as president of the P.T.A. She said she would accept the position if there 58

H o m e Gallery, Art Strands. Interview with Miss Virginia H o m e of Salt Lake City. 60 H o m e Gallery, Art Strands, 16. 89


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would be a school exhibition of works by U t a h painters. She m a d e her point, and the following September a show featured paintings by Waldo Midgley from New York; Lawrence Squires, Lee Green Richards, and M a h o n r i Young from Paris; A. B. Wright, LeConte Stewart, Joseph A. F. Everett, Florence Ware, H e n r i Moser, and M a r y Teasdel from Los Angeles; and J. T. Harwood from San Francisco. I n 1922 Mrs. H o m e started to hang informal exhibits in Salt Lake City, Provo, and Ogden banks and personally carried the pictures each week via interurban trains. She also opened a gallery in the Z C M I tearoom and the O a k Room of the Newhouse Hotel. T h e H o m e s bought the former home of Dr. Ernest V a n Cott at 868 Second Avenue when Alice decided that she needed more gallery space and a place to entertain artists. T h e Alice Merrill H o m e Gallery financed the combined exhibitions of the U t a h Art Institute and the U t a h Art Colony when they were without state funds and commissioned Oriental rugs from Syria and the Holy Land. I n less t h a n ten years, Mrs. H o m e sold 474 paintings for which she received $49,000 and placed over 30 collections of works by U t a h artists. 61 She never charged an artist a commission for his first picture sold by her gallery. 62 Mrs. H o m e was honored many times. I n 1904 she was a speaker at the International Congress of Women in Berlin, she was n a m e d among the first group in the U t a h Hall of Fame by the U t a h Federation of Women's Clubs, and, in 1942, she received the M e d a l of H o n o r from the Academy of Western Culture. Mrs. H o m e died October 7, 1948. T h e r e are many who could be included in Utah's Leading Ladies of the Arts, some whose contributions were local, some who achieved national or international acclaim. They lived in a forbidding frontier country at a time when women were struggling from the bonds of "civil death." 6 3 Perhaps the roles of the sexes were equalized in their common struggle on the westward trek; perhaps there was need for a persecuted people to seek solace in the Arts. I n the words of Alice Merrill H o m e , "Strange indeed, it is, that this isolated west, forbidding in its isolation, became to an earnest people a guerdon in its forbiddance." 6 4 61 62

Ibid., 22.

H o m e interview. According to the English jurist Sir William Blackstone, "As the marriage creates the unity a n d the husband is religiously the head of the family, the law declares, that the external powers of this family, in respect to property and government, shall vest in the husband." Feminist Elizabeth Cady Stanton, in 1854, declared that on entering wedlock a woman met "instant civil death." M a r y E. Beard, Woman As Force in History (New York, 1946). 64 H o m e Gallery, Art Strands, 4. 63


REVIEWSAND PUBLICATIONS The American West: Frontier & Region. Interpretations by J o h n Walton Caughey. Edited a n d with a n introduction by Norris Hundley, Jr., a n d J o h n A. Schutz. (Los Angeles: T h e W a r d Ritchie Press, 1969. xxvii + 287 p p . $10.00) I t would be well for the generation of historians, trained during t h e hectic decade that has closed behind us, to keep J o h n Walton Caughey's volume of essays within easy reach. F o r those who are prone nostalgically, but unrealistically, to reflect on the uncomplicated life within the cloistered halls of learning, this collection of essays will serve, in part, to remind the non-academician of the unadvertised liabilities of university life. Born in Wichita, Kansas, three decades after t h e closing of t h e frontier, Caughey was educated a t t h e University of Kansas, later receiving his advanced studies under Bolton a t t h e University of California. His interest in the Spanish borderlands was cemented to his future career when, in 1930, h e was accepted by the University of California a t Los Angeles as a fledgling instructor of history. I n essence this volu m e reflects his professional career a t that institution. A mild-mannered, softspoken scholar a n d teacher, Professor Caughey is linked to the history of California a n d the West in the same m a n n e r that Frederick Jackson T u r n e r is identified with the frontier, Herbert Eugene Bolton to t h e Spanish borderlands, or as Walter Prescott Webb is closely as-

sociated with t h e Great Plains. T h e comparison is well deserved. As a historian h e has examined t h e structure and dynamics of the West from its beginnings to the critical era of our day in more t h a n twenty books and close to a h u n d r e d articles. T h e two principal editors of this work, Norris Hundley a n d J o h n A. Schutz, have selected, with unusual skill, samplings of Caughey's major articles and addresses, arranging the selections to present a continuing chronicle of the American frontier. The American West is divided into five p a r t s : T h e first analyzes the inherent qualities that m a d e the West different from other sections; t h e second traces t h e development of t h e O l d Southwest while the third collection of essays provides a thoughtful, descriptive, and analytical survey on the writing of California history. A subordinate but ever-present thesis underlying this work is the plea for more dedicated efforts in the field of local history. T h e central frame of reference in the last two segments of the study is past and contemporary vigilante justice with special attention to its long effect on the due process of law as it comes into play within the operational framework of the university system. I n our era of dissent, the last selections seem timely. I n 1949 the faculty of the University of California was informed that an oath of allegiance would b e included in all 1950 contracts a n d that n o salaries would be paid to professors who failed


Reviews and Publications to accept this imposition of outside standards. After careful reflection Caughey and a small community of scholars refused to sign the new test oath, arguing that it neither guaranteed loyalty to the nation or served the interest of higher education or the people of California. T h e nonsigners were summarily fired. Although the loyalty oath was later ruled unconstitutional by the courts, the fight waged by Professor Caughey was a scarring, traumatic experience. " T o be a partisan of the freedoms entails genuine risk. I t is a familiar concept t h a t freedom is seldom free, that it must be bought with a price . . . . I t is still more of a shock t h a t to be a champion of freedom of religion, of speech, of the press, or of assembly, or an advocate of due process or equality before t h e law, exposes one to criticism as a menace to society and un-American. Notwithstanding the weight of this antagonism, there are those who speak u p for freedom." Although m a n y m a y disagree with some of Caughey's defenses, t h e reader is struck by the intensity of t h e pressures exerted upon Caughey a n d his colleagues and the personal sacrifice he was called u p o n to make, frequently without the support of his friends within the university system. T h e material in the back of this attractively designed volume contains a valuable list of Caughey's published works. This is a well-written, lucid, a n d illuminating book — a handsome tribute to one of the finest gentlemen in the West.

87 ( N o r m a n : University of O k l a h o m a Press, 1968. xliii 4- 208 + Ix + lxxxiii p p . $15.00)

Professor of History Weber State College

This fascinating volume is full of surprises, not the least of which is the discovery t h a t the artist's comments prove ultimately to challenge or exceed his painting in terms of both surface interest and intrinsic worth. H a v e you known living painters who exhibit this same artistic dualism? I could n a m e one or two from my own limited acquaintance in the current scene. I t would be interesting to investigate in depth the relationship between verbal a n d visual expression. Are the powers (or talents) to observe keenly a n d then to report creatively in b o t h words a n d pictures more often t h a n not companions in the "artist" of unusual ability? I wonder. I n any event The West of Alfred Jacob Miller is a West of documentary sketches a n d entertaining, informative commentary, the latter spiced with a delightful sense of h u m o r a n d a fondness for borrowed words. T h e format, each two-page spread devoted to a single painting and its accompanying text, makes a most palatable volume t h a t leads the reader swiftly through the material. Regarding the craftsmanship which one must consider in passing j u d g m e n t on a volume devoted essentially to works of art, it might be said that the pictorial reproduction is of good quality. T h e color plates have richness, depth, a n d clarity. T h e black a n d white halftones seem entirely adequate. T h e binding a n d p a p e r stock are excellent, the former sturdy a n d h a n d some, the latter rich in texture a n d weight.

The West of Alfred Jacob Miller (1837) from the Notes and Water Colors in The Walters Art Gallery with an account of the artist. By M a r v i n C. Ross. Revised a n d Enlarged Edition.

T h e typography a n d design are conservative and legible, at best, b u t make no creative contribution to the volume. Although this might be attributed to a conscious desire to avoid permitting other factors to compete or interfere

D O N A L D R.

MOORMAN


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with t h e pictures, the same reasoning it would seem to this reviewer would lead one to find a format a n d design— possibly a horizontal one (Are my scholarly readers n o w shifting nervously in their seats?)—which would permit larger a n d m o r e nearly actual-size reproduction within t h e same p a g e size, m a k i n g the pictorial detail m o r e accessible, i Aside from such speculation a n d critical observation, it should certainly be granted that, in the brief journey t h r o u g h the book, one feels he has accompanied a n interesting a n d talented m a n o n a series of colorful adventures. K E I T H E.

MONTAGUE

Bailey-Montague & Associates Salt Lake City, Utah Frontiersmen in Blue: The United States Army and the Indian, 18481865. By R o b e r t M . Utley. (New York: T h e M a c m i l l a n Company, 1967. xv + 384 p p . $9.95) This book is the second in a multivolume series being edited by Louis M o r t o n a n d bearing the general title: " T h e Wars of the U n i t e d States." E a c h volume is designed to present t h e reader with a synthesis of existing works on a given period or subject. Frontiersmen in Blue is no exception to this approach, b u t Robert M . Utley's mastery of the sources has enabled him to reach a set of conclusions — while pursuing a detailed narrative account — which goes far beyond a m e r e summary of existing studies. T h e a u t h o r has, for example, lived u p to his subtitle by giving the Indians equal time a n d coverage. T h e distinguishing ethnic characteristics of the tribes, the n a t u r e of the local environment, the causes of a " w a r , " a n d the strategies a n d personalities involved are clearly delineated. Using a full cast of comprehensible I n d i a n leaders a n d believable generals, Utley chronicles vir-

tually every battle a n d skirmish which occurred between the end of the Mexican W a r a n d the closing of the Civil War. W i t h o u t being definitive the book will serve as a useful quick reference text for scholars a n d buffs. So far as Utley can tell there was no grand strategy, no great heroes, never a n army in t h e real sense, no overriding differences between professional and volunteer, a n d seldom any great successes in m a j o r battles. O n e of his admitted difficulties is t h a t he must write about a skeleton army, a makeshift strategy, a n d a set of accomplishments which are often h a r d to identify as being in the plus or minus column. Utley's reasons for this unimpressive record are w o r t h noting. While it was obvious t h a t t h e n a t u r e of the terrain and the enemy would dictate things, he concludes t h a t the army never learned to live off the land or be highly mobile. Both military leadership a n d military requirements were inadequate, but the most i m p o r t a n t factor for failure was "the Congressional passion for economy" which he says "shaped the frontier army." Only superior weaponry appears to have given the frontiersmen in blue an a d v a n t a g e over the enemy. I n short the book describes a democratic, pluralistic society trying to pursue a n expansionist "manifest destiny" policy without any overall formula or adequate resources so t h a t both the process and its results can be called chaotic. I n assessing the army's role, he states that it was b u t "one of m a n y groups some organized, some not, joined in a largely uncontrollable movement that, in the course of subjugating a wilderness empire, also subjugated one people to another." While the book covers a r m y operations in California a n d the Pacific Northwest, understandably t h e largest sections deal w i t h the Great Plains and the Southwest. After analyzing the tradi-


Reviews and Publications tionally hostile nature of MexicanIndian relations, Utley concludes that the Americans replaced the Mexicans in the struggle and inherited an inevitable war. His observations that Southwestern Indian problems were appalling in their complexity are not new, but his description of the gradual evolution of a defense system under Generals Sumner, Garland, and Canby sets in perspective the much-touted accomplishments of Kit Carson and General Carleton in that region. Since operations on the Pacific Slope and in the Pacific Northwest were of such sporadic nature, Utley tries to make the account hang together by pursuing the careers of the generals in charge of these departments. What emerges is high praise for Ethan Allan Hitchcock, George Wright, and Persifor Smith, and considerably less praise for others. Even so the coverage of the Rogue River, Yakima, and Spokane "wars" seems incomplete since the political intrigues and personalities involved are not fully treated. Generally speaking Utley finds that by 1860 the major Indian problems had been resolved on the coast and in the Northwest. In treating warfare on the Great Plains during the Civil War period, Utley argues that hostilities were fomented by whites pursuing either a blundering or a cynical policy. Governor John Evans, Colonel John Chivington, and General S. R. Curtis are roundly condemned for their parts in the Sand Creek Massacre. His candid assessment of the Powder River Expedition under Mormon-hating General Patrick E. Connor is used to highlight the army's unrealistic approach to the Indian problem. It is in the discussion of plains warfare and in the treatment of the Sioux "Outbreak" that Utley comes closest to stating an underlying theme of the volume: that the wars and the whole shape of Indian policy could have been different. He suggests that

89 the settlers themselves could have handled Indian problems with less bloodshed, for the very presence of the army led them (the settlers) to be bolder and less responsible. In his last chapter Utley asserts that while there was no peace in 1865 and still no real army, certain things had been accomplished or resolved. The basic framework of the commands, the defense policies, and the fixed post system had been set. The army had accumulated much useful information, had eliminated the tribes in the Great Basin and Pacific Slope areas as a problem, and had learned that winter campaigns and total war were very effective. But there remained twenty-five more years of war and many haunting dilemmas: Was total war humane in the long run or indefensible? Was the army there to defend white against Indian or Indian against white? Was the Indian to be under military or civilian control? With these questions and others, Utley sets the stage for his next volume which will cover Indian-white warfare from 1865 to 1890. The balance and honesty of this general narrative, plus its thoughtful interpretations, make this a useful book for scholar and buff alike. The specialist will miss any technical discussions of weaponry or the science of warfare. And the political historian will note that the book slights, with the exception of Colorado, the local political situations and, more generally, the relation of the soldiers to their white brethren. Utah readers, for example, will find no adequate description of Connor's relations to the Saints. There is also less about Washington's role in policy-making than one would like. These omissions are not so serious, however, as to affect the contribution of this useful and readable HOWARD R. LAMAR

Chairman Department of History Yale University


90 The Land Office Business: The Settlement and Administration of American Public Lands, 1789-1837. By Malcolm Rohrbaugh. (New York: Oxford University Press, 1968. 331 pp. $8.75) The accolade "this is an important book" is frequently used, but it is almost essential in describing Professor Rohrbaugh's work. It is a competent study of an aspect of our history that is of a great deal of importance to the development of the nation and that is much too infrequently the subject of serious and fruitful study. It is also a revealing and meaningful study of governmental institutions in the period. The subject is the Land Office and its operation between 1789 and 1837. The major focus is on the development of the office in Washington and the ways it was organized and administered. At the same time there is careful and revealing investigation of the way the Land Office extended itself through the creation of land districts and district offices to handle land sales in the areas where they are needed. In this way the book covers in an intimate way the land disposal practices of the federal government from eastern Ohio and Alabama through Missouri, Arkansas, and Louisiana. A number of things about the Land Office and its operations receive a perspective and emphasis that has not normally been accorded them. The amount of business and the problems of the Land Office in handling that business with the delays, uncertainties, conflicts over title, and related problems emerge clearly. Also the attractiveness and prestige of managing the district offices with control of survey, purchase of supplies, and considerable patronage are clearly indicated with the resulting interest of prominent people in vying for these offices. The book conveys a sense of the drama and the importance of the Land

Utah Historical

Quarterly

Office and its operation to the America of 150 and more years ago so that the reader catches the attitudes and feelings of the Americans of the time. The Land Office had its impact on the actual settlers of course, but its importance to the surveyor, lawyer, merchant, and real estate operator among others is clearly shown. The author used sources that have not previously been as extensively and effectively used in studying our land system, and especially the Land Office, chief among these were the records of the office in the National Archives. The lack of study of our land system is revealed in that this is not a parallel or replacement or revisionist study of a former work. The books on land policy have been on policy as revealed in legislation or land policy as revealed in local administration or development. Professor Rohrbaugh makes a very important contribution in this study of the Land Office and its importance in the first half of the nineteenth century. W. D. AESCHBACHER

Head Department of History University of Cincinnati Campftre Frontier: Historical Stories and Poems of the Old West. By Ann Woodbury Hafen. (Denver, Colorado: The Old West Publishing Company, 1969. 248 pp. $5.50) The stories collected by Ann W. Hafen are stories that belong together as she has arranged them in this book. Unashamedly romantic, Mrs. Hafen's heroes stand tall, are glorious and great men. Because from her vantage point in time she can look at the exploits of the individuals here recounted with the appreciation of the struggle, strength, and daring required merely to survive, let alone accomplish, she may be inclined to color her characters with too


Reviews and Publications much innocence and purity of motive. In her choice of stories the white man is most usually the good man, and the good Indian is the one who appreciates this fact and behaves accordingly. Mrs. Hafen's introductions to each section provide the background against which the various aspects of frontier life unfold: Indian guide, trapper, scout, dragoon, government explorer, even the miner — and each story is representative of an experience that was multiplied several fold in the western drama. The stories are fascinating and provide insights, personal and human, which would be lost in a formal history book. This book was written to be enjoyed by young and old. One does wonder at times, however, if the technique of using dialogue, mannerisms, and thoughts of the characters in novelized form might not detract from the sense of reality rather than contribute to it. Greater credibility might have been achieved if the characterizations had been drawn in straight historical narrative. The poetry section is particularly delightful. And with it all this book makes one smell the campfires and feel the prairie winds, the summer's dusty heat, and the winter's biting cold. One can see the wagons winding along the trail, hear the thundering herds of buffalo, sense the greed of the land hunter and miner, and understand the position the Indian was forced into and the righteousness of the white man in doing it. The land that is the West shines through, is the magnificent stage, and in this book the characters act out its destiny. DOROTHY Z. MORTENSEN

Business Manager Organization of American Historians Westward to Promontory: Building the Union Pacific across the plains and mountains. A pictorial documentary.

91 With text by Barry B. Combs. (Palo Alto, California: American West Publishing Company, 1969. 79 pp. $10.75) To celebrate the one hundredth anniversary of the completion of the first transcontinental railroad, the American West Publishing Company and Barry Combs prepared this handsome, colorful documentary volume — in collaboration with the new Oakland Museum and the American Geographical Society. Many of the striking plates in the collection are original glass negatives from the Andrew J. Russell Collection now at the Oakland Art Museum. Russell was the official photographer of the Union Pacific Railroad during the Civil War era. His photographs constitute a fascinating pictorial record about the building of the Union Pacific. Understandably, the volume contains little relating to the Central Pacific Railroad and the Big Four. Conveying much of the epic quality which the project entailed, these pictures include some of the best yet published about railroad construction in the West. Among the photographs included in this volume are early views of Omaha and various construction sites in Utah and Wyoming. The pictorial record is especially valuable for immortalizing the existence and appearance of temporary construction camps along the Union Pacific trail, such as Bear River City and Miller and Patterson's Camp at Tunnel # 2 . These have long since disappeared, for their day of glory was short and brief. Other scenes provide glimpses of tunnels being bored, timbers being shaped, difficult railroad bridges being put into place, and excavations of seemingly impenetrable canyons underway. Lovers of Western Americana as well as railroad buffs will enjoy perusing this informative collection, accompanied as it is by an apt commentary. The volume


92

Utah Historical Quarterly

will find a place o n the shelf of p o p u l a r works which c o m m e m o r a t e t h e centennial of the first transcontinental railroad. GERALD D.

Professor of University of New

NASH

History Mexico

The Sound of Mountain Water. By Wallace Stegner. ( G a r d e n City, N e w Y o r k : Doubleday & C o m p a n y , Inc., 1969. 286 p p . $5.95) T h e essays of this collection, written by Stegner over t h e past twenty-five years, are w o r t h reading for their impressive style, their incidental interpretations of American civilization a t large, a n d their intense reaction to the culture of the m o d e r n West. T h e culture of the m o d e r n West is, of course, t h e unifying subject of these essays, alt h o u g h Stegner himself declares: " T h e r e is no Western face . . . . I t takes m o r e generations t h a n they [the people of the West] have yet h a d for the making of a regional culture." Stegner is wrong in this assertion: there is a western identity a n d h e is p a r t of it. I n m a n y of his essays, Stegner shows t h a t he is m o r e t h a n western. H e has obviously mastered a n d become a p a r t of the large humanistic tradition of the Occident. A notable example is the last essay of the book. Celebrating the dedication of a U t a h library in 1968, this essay gently chides a n era p a r a noiacally rejective of the past a n d affirms t h e importance of preserving the t h o u g h t a n d feeling of the ages. Novelist, academician, a n d American intellectual, Stegner is a person as likely to know Sophocles, Aquinas, or Goethe as to know T u r n e r , Wister, or Rhodes. Yet for all his genuine supraregional cultural possessions, Stegner shows himself to be indelibly a n d totally a westerner. I n some of his essays, h e p r a c tices in t h a t literary type compulsive to western writers—the landscape descrip-

t i o n — a n d he performs well, even poetically, in his endeavor. I n other essays, h e responds correctively to western m a l practices, as w h e n he satirizes the billboards of H i g h w a y 66 or when he considers the uncertain effects of white civilization u p o n Indians. H e responds, too, to t h e problems a n d duties of the western historian a n d writer, noting in one essay, for example, t h a t native western optimism fails to p r e p a r e regional writers to compete well in a national literary scene requiring axiom a t i c disbelief in anything cheerful or complacent. These essays m a r k Stegner as a westerner not merely because their topic is western scenes a n d people but especially because they show t h a t Stegner's emotions are b o u n d to the West. This bond of a m a n to a place is most obvious in Stegner's reaction to the western wilderness. Everyone recognizes t h a t the center of western tradition — of the meaningful past of the West — is the encounter of civilized m a n with the untouched wilderness; we call this the frontier experience. T h e feeling that this experience was somehow overwhelmingly imp o r t a n t was fixed u p o n the West by the non-West: as the non-Western States developed their regional identities u p o n memories of puritans, revolution, and civil war, they assigned to the West the role of curator of t h e frontier tradition. T h e large meanings of the frontier — t h e heroism of civilized m a n ' s settlem e n t of the wilderness, the freedom of his escape from civilized restraints, a n d the beatitude of his isolation with the god of the wilderness — became domin a n t motifs of western identity. W h a t is not so often recognized is t h a t the actual wilderness, the hemmed-in, traversed, scarred residual wilderness, is as i m p o r t a n t to the West as the vanished wilderness of tradition. H e r o i c settlement a n d anarchic freed o m are no longer actualities, but w h a t


Reviews and

Publications

Stegner calls "the wilderness experience" remains because mountains, deserts, and canyons remain. It is still possible to find beatitude in the western wilderness. Stegner's essays show him to have been illumined by it. Like Bernard DeVoto, A. B. Guthrie, Joseph Wood Krutch, and others living and dead, adopted and native in a growing fraternity of worthy westerners, Stegner shows us the face of the West. We see in his essays further evidence that the West does indeed have a distinctive identity, a vital, dignified ethos centered upon an irresistable urge to be on western soil, to hear the whisper of the western past, and to feel the western god. LEVI S. PETERSON

Associate Professor of English Weber State College High Road to Promontory: Building the Central Pacific (now the Southern Pacific) across the High Sierra. By George Kraus. (Palo Alto, California: American West Publishing Company, 1969. 317 pp. $9.50) Over a period of years, Mr. Robert Hancocks gathered a large amount of material relating to the construction of the Central Pacific Railroad; unfortunately he died before he had an opportunity to use it. George Kraus fell heir to this collection and, using it as his main source, has written High Road to Promontory. This book tells the story of the construction of the Central Pacific Railroad. It begins with the long struggle to obtain federal legislation favorable to the building of a pacific railroad and concludes with the Driving of the Golden Spike at Promontory Summit completing the transcontinental railroad on May 10, 1869. It is mainly involved with the financing and construction of the road and the involvement of "The Big Four" — Stanford, Huntington,

93 Hopkins, and Crocker — in that exciting venture. To tell this story Kraus has chosen to quote directly from the multitude of personal letters, railroad and government documents, newspaper articles, and other materials that were at his disposal. Approximately three-fourths of the book is composed of direct quotations from these sources. In many instances the author has poorly joined the quotes and in depending so heavily on them the book lacks continuity. The excessive use of quotations also hampers the smooth transition from one subject to another. However, because of the excellent selection of source material the book is interesting and the reader gains a feel for the almost insurmountable problems encountered by the officers, engineers, and construction crews of the Central Pacific in financing and constructing the railroad. Nearly a third of the book is devoted to the completion of the first fifty miles of the road; this mileage had to be completed before any federal aid would be forthcoming. The basic struggle during this period was in obtaining the capital to continue construction. The high point of the book is the period of construction in the Sierra Mountains. Construction of the Central Pacific was achieved, to a large degree, by the use of Chinese laborers. Their work, personal habits, organization into groups, and the problems the railroad officials encountered in working with Oriental laborers are well told. Description of the work as told by actual laborers is most colorful and dramatic. The book is highlighted with a large number of photographs taken by Alfred A. Hart of Sacramento. He was employed by the Central Pacific to make a photographic record of construction progress. Hart traveled along the line extensively during construction and caught the personality of the railroad.


94

Utah Historical Quarterly

As an appendix Kraus has provided the reader with short biographical sketches of "The Big Four," Judah, and also the engineers and superintendents responsible for completion of the road. He also includes a report from the chief engineer of the preliminary survey and an estimate of cost of construction. This document was prepared by Theodore Judah and was used in convincing Congress to pass favorable legislation in support of the road. While Kraus's style and heavy dependence on quotations leave much to be desired, it is a book that holds interest for the casual reader of Western Americana and is of source value on the historian's shelf. C. A. REEDER, J R .

Registrar University of Utah

ARTICLES O F INTEREST American Heritage, The Magazine of History—XX, October 1969: "Down the Colorado [John Wesley Powell]," photographs by ELIOT PORTER, 52ff.; "Lament for a Lost Eden," by ELIOT PORTER, 61

American History Illustrated—IV, October 1969: "Independence [Missouri]: Gateway to the West," by GLADYS MARIE W I L S O N LIAM C. DAVIS, 36-42

AND W I L -

Arizona Highways—XLV, October 1969: "Barbed Wire: the fence that tamed the west," by CAROL OSMAN BROWN, 12-39—November 1969: "My Southwest," by JOSEF M U E N C H , 4ff.; "Notes For Photographers," by JOSEF M U E N C H , 12-30; "Part Two: Northern Arizona's

Plateau Country," [by JOSEF M U E -

NCH], 31-35; "Part Three: The Desert In Arizona's Neighboring States," [by JOSEF M U E N C H ] , 36-39

Dialogue: A Journal of Mormon Thought—TV, Summer 1969: "Governor Thomas Ford and the Murderers of Joseph Smith," by KEITH H U N T R E S S , 41-52

The Explorers Club Explorers Journal —XLVII, September 1969: "Powell's Colorado Centennial," by GEORGE CROSSETTE, 174-78

Horizon, A Magazine of the Arts— XII, Winter 1970: "Genealogy: The Well-Pruned Family Tree," by J. H. PLUMB, 118-20

The Improvement Era—72, December 1969: "The City of Zion in the Mountain West [characteristics of Mormon cities and towns]," by RICHARD V. FRANCAVIGLIA, lOff. Journal of the West—VIII, July 1969: "Mexico and the Mountain Men, 1821-1828," by DAVID J. WEBER, 36978; "George Tyng's Last Enterprise, A Prominent Texan and a Rich Mine in Utah [Miller Hill and Tyng Mine in American Fork Canyon]," by LAURENCE

P. JAMES,

429-37—October

1969: "The West as a Desert in American Thought Prior to Long's 1819-1820 Expedition," by TERRY L. ALFORD, 515-25 Kennescope—No. 119, July-August 1969: "Daniel C. Jackling [biography]," 4-7; "Ashley Area—Gorgeous Variety [Flaming Gorge]," 1013—No. 120, September-October 1969: "Utah's unbelievable Canyonlands country," 8-11 The Masterkey for Indian Lore and History — 43, October - December 1969: "Analytical Interpretations of Petroglyphs," by KATHLEEN W H I T AKER, 132-43

Missouri Historical Review—LXIV, October 1969: "The Expulsion of the Mormons from Jackson County, Missouri," by WARREN A. JENNINGS, 41-63


95

Reviews and Publications Montana, the Magazine of Western History—XIX, A u t u m n 1969: " M a j or Powell & T h o m a s M o r a n in Canyon

Country,"

by

THURMAN

WIL-

K I N S , 16-31; "[Mexican] Revolution, Agony South of the Border," by H A L DEEN BRADDY, 32-45; "Air T r a n s p o r t -

ation a n d t h e American West," by G E O R G E H . T W E N E Y , 68-77

Express," by D O N L . R E Y N O L D S , 3-6

National Parks Magazine — 4 3 , J u n e 1969: "Last Rail, Last Spike! A N a tional Historic Site in U t a h marks the meeting place of t h e rails t h a t linked east with west," by M U R R A Y MOLER,

8-9—September 1969:

"Dinosaur [National] M o n u m e n t to the Age of Reptiles," by O . F . O L D ENDORPH,

5-10—November

1969:

" L o g a n Canyon Standards for D e s t r u c t i o n , " by G E O R G E A L D E R S O N , 18-

20 Nebraska History—50, Fall 1969: " T h e Medicinal Herbs of O u r Forefathers," by L I L A GRAVATT S C R I M S H E R , 309-22

Our Public Lands—19, Summer 1969: "Raft Riding T h r o u g h Desolation Canyon, W h e r e J o h n Wesley Powell Entered t h e U n k n o w n , " by EDWARD J.

HOFFMAN,

18-20—Fall

P A U L H O L S I N G E R ^ 154-60

Plateau, The Quarterly of the Museum of Northern Arizona—42, Summer 1969: "A Periglacial A m p h i t h e a t e r on t h e northeast side of Navajo M o u n t a i n , southern U t a h , " by J O H N W.

Museum Graphic—XXI, Spring 1969: " G r a n d O l d Gentlemen of t h e Pony

M.

H o m e : T h e A t t e m p t to Unseat Senator Reed Smoot, 1903-1907," by M .

1969:

" J o h n Wesley Powell a n d t h e Public L a n d s , " by J E R R Y A. O ' C A L L A G H A N ,

6-9 The Pacific Historian—13, Fall 1969: "William H . Emory a n d the Mexican Survey," by O D I E B. F A U L K , 47-62;

"Some Views of the M o u n t a i n M a n , " by H A R L A N H . H A G U E , 81-92

Pacific Historical Review—XXXVIII, M a y 1969: "Anodyne for E x p a n sion: Meiji J a p a n , t h e M o r m o n s , a n d Charles LeGendre," by SANDRA T . C A R U T H E R S , 129-39

Pacific Northwest Quarterly—60, July 1969: " F o r G o d a n d t h e American

BLAGBROUGH

AND WILLIAM

J.

BREED, 20-26

The Pony Express—XXXV, M a y 1969: " T h o m a s Hill's 'Driving of t h e Golden Spike' [artist]," 1-2; " T h e Pacific Railroad U n i t e d — 1 8 6 9 , " by H . H A M L I N , 3-11

Reclamation Era, A Water Review Quarterly — 5 5 , November 1969: "William E. Smythe: Irrigation Crusader," by M A R T I N E. C A R L S O N , 17-

21 The Smithsonian Journal of History— 3, S u m m e r 1968: " J o h n Wesley Powell's Colorado River Exploration, 1871-1872," by D O N D . AND C A T H E R I N E S. F O W L E R , 1-44

Southwestern Historical Quarterly— L X X I I I , July 1969: " T h e T r e k S o u t h : H o w t h e M o r m o n s W e n t to M e x i c o , " by B. C A R M O N H A R D Y , 1-16

Sunset, The Magazine of Western Living—143, July 1969: " T h e Navajo's canyon of history: A r o u n d Canyon de Chelly by car, down from t h e rim on foot, into t h e canyon by jeep," 52-57 Utah Economic and Business Review— 29, M a y 1969: "Territory of U t a h Economic Statistics [economic a n d business d a t a of o n e h u n d r e d years ago presented in t h e words of t h a t day]," Iff. Utah Educational Review — 62, M a y J u n e 1969: " T h e Nation is U n i t e d By Rail," 18-19 Utah Farmer—89, October 16, 1969: " 'Green Belt' A m e n d m e n t Will Bring


96 Many

Utah Historical Changes,"

CHRISTENSEN,

by

RONDO

A.

8ff.

AND LOIS M. Cox,

In Utah," by J E D O N A. EMENHISER,

526-35

Utah Science—30, June 1969: "The Ecologies of Utah's Watery Lands," by J. B. L o w

Quarterly

36-

43 Western American Literature —• I I I , Winter 1969: "Research in Western American Literature [completed theses and dissertations and works in progress]," edited by T H O M A S J. LYON, 337-41 — IV, Spring 1969: "Owen Wister's 'Hank's Woman': The Writer and His Comment," by NEAL LAMBERT, 39-50 Western Gateways: Magazine of the Golden Circle—-9, July 1969: "Mormon Country [from northern Utah through the state]," by GAYLORD STAVELEY, 6ff.; "100th Anniversary of the Golden Spike," by MARVIN HEDEGARD, 12ff.; "Is It a Language? Grammatical Structure of American Indian Pictography," by LA VAN MARTINEAU, 20ff.; "Facets of Flaming Gorge," by T O N Y GAUBA, 29-32;

"Utah State Parks in Frontier Country," 34—September 1969: "Outdoor Recreation on Indian Lands," by PEARL BAKER, 24ff. Western Humanities Review—XXII, Summer 1968: "Intolerable Zion: The Image of Mormonism in Nineteenth Century American Literature," by LEONARD J. ARRINGTON and J O N

HAUPT, 243-60

The Western Political Quarterly — X X I I , September 1969: "The 1968 Election in the West," by CONRAD JOYNER, 451-55; "The 1968 Election

The [Chicago] Westerners Brand Book —XXV, February 1969: "Mormons in the Trans-Mississippi West, 18371860," by FRANK L. KLEMENT, 89ff. The Westerners New York Posse Brand Book—14, Number 4: "Nez Perces and The Appaloosa Horse . . . . False History?" by ALVIN M. JOSEPHY, JR.,

73ff.—15, Number 2: "The Pony Gives Way to the Talking Wire," by HARRY

SINCLAIR DRAGO,

25ff.—16,

Number 2: "Powell of the Genessee," by ROBERT W E S T HOWARD, 25ff.— Number 3: "Fremont's Winter Tragedy In The Colorado Mountains," by PETER DECKER, 60-62 Westways—60, July 1968: "Revolution on the Reservation [Navajos]," by J O H N V. YOUNG, 3-6; "California Classics Reread—Ramona" by LAWRENCE

CLARK

POWELL,

13ff.—61,

May 1969: "Appointment at Promontory," by FRANK A. TINKER, 2ff.— June 1969: "In the Wake of John Wesley Powell," by J O H N V. YOUNG,

26ff.; "A Recreation Guide to Lake Powell," by J I M GEBBIE, 30-35; "Fishing It [Lake Powell]," by GAYLORD STAVELEY, 36-38 Wisconsin Magazine of History—51, Summer 1968: "The IWW and the Question of Violence," by JOSEPH R. CONLIN, 316-26 Wisconsin, then and now—XV, May 1969: "Leland Stanford's Wisconsin Years," by NORMAN E. TUTOROW, 14


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s

1 as

•(•jwfltitra IN A NEW LAND The Greek Immigrants in Utah


UTAH STATE HISTORICAL SOCIETY

BOARD O F STATE HISTORY Division of Department of Development Services MILTON c. ABRAMS, L o g a n , 1973

President DELLO G. DAYTON, O g d e n , 1971

Vice

President

C H A R L E S s. P E T E R S O N , Salt L a k e City

Secretary DEAN R. B R I M H A L L , F r u i t a , 1973 M R S . J U A N I T A B R O O K S , St. George, 1973

J A C K GOODMAN, Salt Lake City, 1973 M R S . A. c. J E N S E N , Sandy, 1971 T H E R O N L U K E , Provo, 1971 CLYDE L. MILLER, Secretary of S t a t e

Ex

officio

HOWARD c. PRICE, J R . , Price, 1971 MRS. ELIZABETH SKANCHY, M i d v a l e , 1 9 7 3 M R S . NAOMI W O O L L E Y , Salt L a k e City, 1971

ADVISORY BOARD O F EDITORS THOMAS G. ALEXANDER, PrOVO S. GEORGE ELLSWORTH, L o g a n

M R S . H E L E N z. P A P A N I K O L A S , Salt L a k e City LAMAR P E T E R S E N , Salt L a k e City

M R S . PEARL J A C O B S O N , Richfield

HAROLD S C H I N D L E R , Salt L a k e C i t y

DAVID E . M I L L E R , Salt L a k e City

JEROME STOFFEL, L o g a n

ADMINISTRATION C H A R L E S s. P E T E R S O N , D i r e c t o r J O H N J A M E S , J R . , Librarian

T h e U t a h State Historical Society is a n organization devoted to the collection, preservation, a n d publication of U t a h a n d related history. I t was organized by publicspirited U t a h n s in 1897 for this purpose. I n fulfillment of its objectives, the Society p u b lishes t h e Utah Historical Quarterly, which is distributed to its members with payment of a $5.00 annual membership fee. T h e Society also maintains a specialized research library of books, pamphlets, photographs, periodicals, microfilms, newspapers, maps, a n d manuscripts. M a n y of these items have come to t h e library as gifts. Donations are encouraged, for only through such means can the U t a h State Historical Society live u p to its responsibility of preserving the record of U t a h ' s past.

MARGERY w . WARD, Associate E d i t o r IRIS S C O T T , Business M a n a g e r

T h e primary purpose of the Quarterly is t h e publication of manuscripts, photographs, a n d documents which relate or give a new interpretation to U t a h ' s unique story. Contributions of writers are solicited for the consideration of t h e editor. However, the editor assumes no responsibility for the return of manscripts unaccompanied by return postage. Manuscripts a n d material for publications should be sent to the editor. T h e U t a h State Historical Society does not assume responsibility for statements of fact or opinions expressed by contributors. T h e Utah Historical Quarterly is entered as second-class postage, paid a t Salt Lake City, U t a h . Copyright 1970, U t a h State Historical Society, 603 East South Temple Street, Salt Lake City, U t a h 84102.


Toil

and Rage in a New Land The Greek Immigrants in Utah By

Helen Zeese Papanikolas

Copyright by Author, 1970


Dedicated to my parents Emily and George Zeese


HISTORICAL OUARTERLY

S P R I N G 1970 / V O L U M E 38 / N U M B E R 2

Contents GREEK LAND

100

EXILE

106

T H E G R E A T B I N G H A M S T R I K E O F 1912 A N D E X P U L S I O N OF T H E PADRONE

121

GREEK TOWNS

134

WAR

152

LEAVING T H E LABOR RANKS

157

T H E C A R B O N C O U N T Y S T R I K E O F 1922

166

TRAGEDY AND HATE

176

PROSPERITY AND DEPRESSION

182

"MY C O U N T R Y 'TIS O F T H E E " EDITOR

ASSOCIATE EDITOR

_

197 C H A R L E S S. PETERSON

Margery W. Ward

T H E C O V E R Scenes of Greek immigrant life and symbols of Christ and Christianity. The Utah State Historical Society gives thanks to Allan W. Smart for preparing the cover and George Theodore for the photography. Special appreciation is accorded Cannon-Papanikolas for financial assistance in- publishing this book.


Greek Land

J L R O M T H E DAYS BEFORE HOMER, the Greeks have been sojourners in foreign lands. As if in exile they lived in large Greek colonies throughout Europe, Australia, North and South America, or alone in isolated outposts of Africa and Asia. The word for foreign places, xenetia comes often in Greek conversation. It evokes loneliness in alien lands and nostalgia for Greek earth. From ancient times to the present, songs of xenetia are part of daily life. The lament of Americans that there are no longer frontiers to conquer may never be known by the Greeks. Greece has always been too poor to sustain her people. The celebrated glories of ancient Greece overlook the hard life of the common people, but one of them, Hesiod in his Works and Days, tells of his peasant love for the land, yet his longing for more food and to be less tired each evening after struggling with the dry, rocky earth. It was this age-old poverty that brought the first young Greeks to Utah seventy years ago. To avoid three-years service in the Greek army and, for those living in Greek lands still held by the Turks, to avoid serving in the hated Turkish army were compelling factors, but escape from poverty was the paramount force for emigration. They came, determined and optimistic. They were a realistic people moulded by a bitter national history, by the natural, living faith of the first Christian nation, by a rich folklore, and by a belief in Fate. The strategic position of Greece in the Mediterranean had made it the battleground for waves of invaders. Grey stone Frankish, Venetian, and Turkish castles still stand and mar hills and mountainsides. The longest occupation was that of the Turks who ruled the Balkans for more than four hundred years. Foreign rule stripped Greece of lands, forests, minerals, and metals. It turned the people into serfs, of whom a great number were killed in wars, reprisals, and the bubonic plague.


101

Greek Land

In 1453 when Greek lands were conquered by the Turks, the country's scholars fled to other parts of Europe where for centuries they and their descendants kept alive the Greek language, religion, and the fervor to redeem their lands from the Turks. Many others took refuge in monasteries where they were never heard from again. Recently discovered

"The field is poor, the fatted lambs are hungry. It is a waste of seed to sow it." Photograph furnished by Craig N. Wells

•

Ls.


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manuscripts attest to the existence of these scholars. Much of what their work contains will never be known; the pages disintegrate at a touch.1 During the centuries the Turks ruled the Balkans, time stood still for these captive peoples. While the Reformation, the Renaissance, and the Age of Enlightenment were changing the world, Greece and the other Balkan countries knew nothing of these great forces.2 As the Ottoman Empire grew weak, its repressions toward subject nations became harsh. The Orthodox church and the teaching of Greek were suppressed. Byzantine churches with their brilliant mosaics, a unique contribution to the world, were converted to mosques. Their mosaics were plastered over. With each generation learning lessened until illiteracy reached into the higher clergy. By the end of the sixteenth century, even archbishops had trouble writing their names correctly.3 Yet schools were held at night in caves and cellars. Children of immigrants who attended Greek schools in America learned a poem from those years. A child asks God to bring out the moon to light the way to caves, to learn, he says, "letters and the things of God." A lullaby from Turkish occupation times is still sung: r ^ "And if they tie you to the *^H cross, my child, endure silently." Mothers raised sons to fight the Turks, handed them precious muskets, and told them to come back with jf'^J their guns or not at all. "*"dl^PT nil Folk songs, dirge-like, lamenting the death of young men; the perfidy of the °%m Turks; and the courage of " ^ . MS, ^O 1 the young deacon, Athanasios Diakos, roasted alive, yet • • . . • • . •

Kf »^AJBN.

%£,

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•••'

'>*>>,

(f^ V

\

1 Dr. Jacob Geerlings, professor of languages and history at the University of U t a h , is one of the few scholars who has been allowed to examine the manuscripts. 2 Philip Sherrard, The Marble Threshing Floor (London, 1956), C h a p . 6, advances the theory that since Greece did not know these forces, she did not experience the cultural break affeCted Western 6 Euro* e ' ^ ^ ^ e ei L S . Stavrianos, The Balkans Since 1453 (New York, 1966), 109-10.

X , ' .,:

;

*A^BsSg^"(jP^

s^tfitff

X

-

|L :i

yfaag^SHI The heritage of the Greeks — the Revolution °f 1821 that freed them from Turkish rule. The painting is of the Victory at Vasilikd.

•'•""

"

"

:

::":


Greek Land

103

singing his love of Greek mountains and earth until he died, fed the soul of the people. There were no folk songs about Heaven, unknowable — a luxury to contemplate when each day was a struggle to survive. There were many songs and poems about birds, symbol to the enslaved Greeks of freedom. They had great love for them swooping down to eat scanty grain and soaring above battlefields effortlessly and far removed. Flying off at will wherever they chose, birds were often messengers of truth, sometimes harbingers of evil news — an eagle appearing from a battleground with a severed head in its talons. Proverbs from the days of brilliant antiquity and from enlightened Byzantium were sharpened and honed by the Turkish centuries. They spoke a terse philosophy and held the people together with the bondage of sharing. Many proverbs were of God, Fate, Charon, and the Devil. A few times Heaven was invoked, without sentimentality and fanciful reflections: "Not even in Paradise can man live alone." "Thrashings originated in Paradise." The Greeks responded to reality: "What Fate has written in black ink, the sun can not whiten." 4 The epoch of Turkish rule added words to the pure Greek language or gave old ones a poignancy and emotional content that render them untranslatable: xenetia; filotimo, the self-respect that all of a man's actions attest to; leventia, love of life, gaiety, courage in the face of death; kleftourid, the haunts of the klefts, the guerrillas, ever ready to confront or ambush the Turks. The Greeks survived despite living daily with death, torture, and repressions. Rather than destroy the Greek will, the Turkish vise made the Greek people the most nationalistic of all Balkan peoples. They were not divided by languages and religions into Greek Orthodox, Greek Catholic, Roman Catholic, and Moslem as were other Balkan countries. "To be Greek is to be Orthodox," was said for four hundred years and continues to be said. In the early 1800's guerrillas arose whose heroism is the true heritage of the Greek of today. The Golden Age of Pericles was too distant and unapproachable. Only a small number of the educated were acquainted with that greatness. The common people knew at most a few Aesop's fables; the bravery of a Spartan youth who hid a baby fox in his tunic and stood at attention before his general while his flesh was eaten; the heroic stand against the Persians at Thermopylae. 4

B. J. Marketos, A Proverb for It (New York, 1945).


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But the exploits of the Greek guerrillas were known to all. 5 These klefts, meaning thieves because they struck in the secrecy of night, survived through cunning. O n e of the great kleft heroes, Karaiskakis, a leader in the Revolution, said, "Sometimes I play the trumpet and sometimes the touhelekiaP T h e trumpet is a Greek instrument, the toubelekia, Turkish. 6 Kief tic triumphs and defeats are the substance of Greek folk songs. Sung to the deep vibrating of the clarino (clarinet) and the ominous bagpipes, they kept alive Greek identity throughout the centuries of Turkish domination. Historians record the amazing fact that so little Turkization took place as to be negligible. A few Turkish foods and minor social practices are all that point to this long subjugation. 7 W h e n the Balkan peoples won their independence, they looked back to the time before the Turkish occupation as the great days of their history. T h e Greeks looked back to Byzantium at the height of its magnificence. 8 They were several centuries behind the times. They had become a rustic people with no industries, their land denuded. Ancient temples had been destroyed under the orders of the conquerors and crushed for paving roads; the Parthenon had been bombarded by Turkish cannon. T h e great city of Athens had been reduced to a provincial town of five thousand people. T h e economy of Greece became dependent on the export of the currant crop. France imported almost all of this fruit for wine-making; a disease infesting currants had ruined the entire French crop for a generation. By the end of the last century France began to control the currant blight, and Greece's economy became unsteady. In 1907 the currant crop failed, and Greek economy collapsed. T h e poverty of the country became one of acute suffering. There was only one hope: America. The Greek government encouraged the emigration knowing their young men would follow the old pattern of working in a foreign country, sending back large amounts of money, and after a few years returning with a sizable sum — all of which would help the country financially. Earlier emigrants wrote braggadocio letters with photographs enclosed showing themselves in their new American finery. Advertise5 A classic of this period, The Memoirs of General Makriyannis, has recently been translated into English by H. A. Lidderdale (London, 1966). 6 Nikos Kazantzakis, Report to Greco (New York, 1965), 141. 7 Stavrianos, Balkans Since 1453, 107. 8 Steven Runciman, Byzantine Civilization (New York, 1933).


Greek Land

105

ments of former Greeks, labor agents in America, appeared in all newspapers on the Greek mainland and in Crete; steamship agents traveled from towns to steep mountain villages and astounded their coffeehouse audiences with exaggerated stories of easy money in America. "Work is everywhere. Your two hands are all you need." The young men were impatient to leave for America. They lived in a country of 50,000 square miles, 35,000 square miles less than Early Greek immigrants posing in their the State of Utah. Threenew American finery: George Zaros, Chris Heleotes, and Angelo Heleotes. Photograph fourths of the people lived off furnished by Angelo Heleotes. the land, a land so stony and arid that only one-fifth could be cultivated. A Greek folk poet says: T h e field is poor, the fatted lambs are hungry. I t is a waste of seed to sow it. 9

The dowry system, the only means to distribute what little wealth there was, condemned young men to labor for their sisters' dowries before they could marry. Even at harvest, work was not available for all. Many men and women never married, but grew old working in the fields of others. Men passed their time in coffeehouse indolence; women went from one relative to the other to help in illness and in death. America was the great light for Greece exile.

G. Athanas, Tragoudia Ton Vounon (Songs of the Mountains) (Athens, 1953), 113.


Exile

Some immigrants came from Roumeli, the mountains of Central Greece, wearing the foustanella. Evangelis Raikos. Photograph furnished by Mrs. Ted Heleotes.


T

for steerage space. Some wore the native dress of the mainlanders and islanders, white kilts and pom-pom-tipped curved shoes. Gangs of them from the Island of Crete wore black vrdkes (full breeches), cummerbunds, and black fringed head kerchiefs, often with an amulet of Cretan earth sewn inside their shirts. Few Greek women came to America with their husbands. Money was too scarce. Family clans pooled their resources to send one of their members, and he, in turn, worked to send passage for brothers and cousins. Songs of xenetia filled the clear air of the plains, mountains, and islands. HOUSANDS CLAMORED

M o t h e r , I w a n t to go to foreign lands. T o foreign lands I m u s t go. M o t h e r , make ready a n d knead your son biscuits. Little mother, don't tyrannize my w o m a n . L e t her have partridge for supper a n d rabbit at noon, A n d at the turning of the sun, let her spread her blanket to sleep. 10

Tied to the lapels of the men's jackets were tags. On them were written the men's destination and the name of a fellow countryman or that of a Greek labor agent who had recruited them in the coffeehouses, seaports, and streets of Greece for illegal contract labor in the new country. A small bundle or straw suitcase held their possessions. The majority came, though, without true sponsors, their families' pool of silver coins sewed to their rough goatshair underclothing. They were the sons of peasants; they knew only limited farming and the raising of goats and sheep. The long Turkish occupation that had allowed the country to deteriorate had been followed by the action of England, France, and Russia placing the seventeen-year-old Bavarian Prince Otto (Othon) on the throne of Greece. With him he brought six thousand soldiers to be supported by heavy taxation of the peasants. The guerrilla fighters turned to robbery and kidnapping to exist. For the thirtytwo years of Othon's rule the country further disintegrated. 11 Technical knowledge faded with centuries of disuse. Greek emigrants fell in, then, with the army of unskilled immigrants passing the Statue of Liberty. The young men who came alone, and especially those who emigrated in the year 1907, suffered incredibly.12 The United States was in a state of economic depression, the Panic of 1907. Earlier Greek emigrants, desti10

Soteriou M. Kostopoulou, Nafpaktia (Athens, 1924), 154. Stavrianos, Balkans Since 1453, 481. 12 Theodore Saloutos, The Greeks in the United States (Cambridge, 1964), Chap. 3.

11


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A family portrait before leaving Crete for the unknown. Mr. and Mrs. Pete Georgelas and daughter. Photograph furnished by Mrs. Pete Georgelas.

tute, were returning to Greece at that country's expense. The Greek government became alarmed at stories of hunger and deprivation in America (their own chronic form never preoccupied them for long) and were concerned that the country's future was in jeopardy with the exodus of their youth. Greek newspapers printed harrowing stories of the plight of emigrants in America; they exhorted the young men to remain in their mother country. Heedlessly the young continued their flight, their only fear that a blemish, a cough, or caprice on the part of an official at Ellis Island would turn them away from the Promised Land. A yearly average of thirtyone thousand boys and men came to America between the years of 1906 and 1914.13 Entire villages were left with only women, children, and a few old men. They left fields to be worked and goats to be pastured by the old and by young girls. A phenomenon occurred. In villages, towns, and the few cities there were no young men to marry the girls. The few men who 13

Stavrianos, Balkans Since 1453, 481.


109

Exile

remained found themselves in an enviable position; families of marriageable girls vied for them with large dowries that left them in penury. The traditional May First celebrations— in which young people reigned laden with blossoms and bells, singing the song of "May First" (a paean to youth and young marriage) and girls displaying their dowries of embroidered and woven linens and house furnishings — became desperate affairs. The few young men looked calculatingly at the displays. A generation of young women in Greece remained spinsters ; a few married old men. When the men who had emigrated to America were ready to marry, they sent for younger, marriageable girls. While the women and girls sang the old songs of their sons, brothers, and beloved in foreign lands, the Many Greeks came from Crete young men left Ellis Island. Some wearing vrakes, an amulet of Cretan came to Utah directly. The 1903 earth pinned to their shirts. Mihali Vasilakis. Photograph strike in the Carbon County mines furnished by Steve Sargetakis. 14 opened the way for them. The Coal Inspector's report of that year included an interview with Superintendent Sharp of the Sunnyside mine. Management, he said, preferred young Mormon farmers to work the mines. If they would come, "the foreign element (Italians and Slavs) would never again be permitted in the mines of the Utah Fuel Company. . . . We have suffered enough from these foreigners." 15 Mormons in sufficient numbers did not come, and the Greeks were brought in. Governor Heber M. Wells sent the Utah National Guard into the coal area. Italians and English-speaking miners were driven from the country. The great labor leader Mother Jones was arrested and held in 14 15

Wyoming Labor Journal (Cheyenne), June 16, 1922. Utah, Public Documents, 1903-1904, Sec. 11, Coal Inspector's Report, 66.


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the Price jail. The young Greeks knew nothing of the issues; they did not understand their position. An employer in Greece could do what he liked with his property. To strike against an employer, no matter how cruel, was a strange idea to the Greeks. Each freight train and sometimes a passenger train brought in more of the young Greeks. In 1900 there were 3 of them in Utah, but by 1910 there were 4,062.16 They continued coming until they were the largest labor force in the state. The rest of the young immigrants who eventually reached Utah left Ellis Island and found there was not work for the Americans, let alone for those whom the newspapers called "undesirable aliens." Eating dried beans the men — called teenagers in later times — walked the streets of big cities with newspapers folded inside their jackets to keep out the wind. Trying to find work and not knowing a word of English, they found hostility and violence and were jailed for vagrancy. When their sentences were over, they were taken to the city limits and told, "Go West." West was where the new country was expanding. Men were laying rails, building roads, constructing bridges, and digging water lines. The young Greeks rode the freights and met other Greeks also going west. In Chicago's Greek section on Halstead Street, they found countrymen who directed them to labor gangs building railroads in North and South Dakota, roads in Nebraska, and sewers as far south as Oklahoma. Often a labor agent took a man's last gold piece and sent him into deserts and prairies where he was turned away from gangs that had no need for him or where there was no gang at all. Sometimes the men found work for fifty to seventy-five cents a day. Sometimes they were fortunate and worked a few weeks or months on labor gangs hundreds of miles from the nearest house. If all could not find work, those who did sustained those who had no jobs. The men were stunned by the life they were living. It was not as they had heard in their village coffeehouses. The loneliness of the prairies and deserts wras hard for them. They had come from a gregarious people who met after the day's labor in coffeehouses or the village square; the women visited neighborhood courtyards; and families promenaded on the dusty streets of provincial towns in the evening. To keep the men from deserting 16 U t a h , Second Report of the State Bureau of Immigration, Labor and Statistics, for the years 1913-1914 (Salt Lake City, 1915), 333. T h e first Greek in U t a h was Nicholas Kastro who arrived in the early 1870's and returned to Greece in 1912.


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in the night, employers often provided tent colonies of prostitutes for the larger gangs. Except for those few from the northern Epirus Mountains, the Greeks had never experienced such bitter cold. In their society men had assiduously protected their women, and they in turn had waited on them slavishly. But, in America men had to learn the rudiments of cooking, washing clothing, and nursing illnesses. They tried to remember folk cures used in their villages. They wrote to their families for advice and waited two months for replies. By then it was either too late or unnecessary. On an Oregon extra gang the young men used an effective American medicine. A teaspoonful of the bitter liquid cured an assortment of illnesses. A skull and bones was printed on the label and underneath the English words the men could not read: "For external use. For horses 20-30 drops rubbed on affected parts. For humans 2-3 drops." 17 The three winter months when labor gangs did not work sent the men to the nearest cities and towns where the forced idleness and dwindling of their savings exploded their anxieties into violence among themselves and retaliations against Americans who slandered or took advantage of them. Those in all-Greek labor gangs fared better. They were with countrymen who spoke the same language and had the same customs. They chose one among them to do the cooking, usually the man with the least physical stamina. An oven was a hole scooped out of a dirt bank. A wood fire was made with a piece of metal against the opening to keep in the heat. When the wood burned to ashes, it was scraped out and dough put inside to bake. Meat was thrown onto the ashes. In each gang there were always several great storytellers; for the Greeks are a storytelling people. They have come from a people who had few books and told their history, deeds, battles, triumphs, and defeats with the spoken word. Their stories helped the Greeks endure life.18 Often one of the men brought a musical instrument with him: a clarinet, lyra, laouto, or mandolin.19 After work they sat outside their tents and listened to songs of their country with that homesickness that has no cure. They clasped hands and danced the same dances that the guer17

Maria S. Economou, E Eltines Tis Amerikes Opos Tous Eda (The Greeks of America As I Saw Them) (New York, 1916), 72. 18 Rae Dalven, Modern Greek Poetry (New York, 1949), 23, 24, 25. 19 Until recently the bouzouki was played only in Piraeus and the Pontus region of the Black Sea.


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rilla klefts danced before going out to fight the Turks, the same dance that Achilles danced around the pyre of his friend Patroklus. 20 Around campfires and inside tents or railroad cars, they heard about lynchings of Negroes, whom the Greeks saw for the first time in America and with whom they were now relegated; the lynching of eleven Sicilians in New Orleans in 1891 ;21 and the killing of the Irish Molly Maguires in the Pennsylvania coal fields. (The Irish were now their foremen, but the young Greeks soon learned the unwritten law of the labor gang that any laborer who could whip the foreman became boss.) Some of the men had seen the burning of South Omaha's Greek Town in 1909.22 A policeman, questioning a Greek's right to be seen with a "white" prostitute, was killed during the ensuing argument. A mob formed, rampaged through Greek Town, and set fire to it. Thirtysix Greek merchants were ruined. 23 The Greeks claimed the policeman was drunk and was shot in self-defense. Although there are no official records, Greeks of that time insist that a twelve-year-old Greek boy was killed by a sniper. Some of the men were among the one hundred Greeks who had cleared land of sagebrush near Mountain Home, Idaho. The night before they were to be paid and leave, they were routed from their tents by more than fifty armed and masked men on horseback and herded, halfdressed, down the railroad tracks clutching a few belongings.24 The men were bewildered on being told of the inflammatory reports in the nation's newspapers. The Greeks were called "the scum of Europe," "like oil and water, they don't mix," "undesirable," they possessed "the savage blood lust of this Southern European peasantry," "ignorant, depraved, and brutal foreigners." 25 The 1900 mine disaster that killed two hundred men in Winter Quarters, Utah, was attributed by many to the low intelligence of the foreigners, two of whom may have been Greek. The Los Angeles Herald 20

H . Sakelariou, Elliniki Horie (Greek Dances) (Athens, N . D . ) , Introduction. Andrew F. Rolle, The Immigrant Unpraised (Norman, 1968), 105. 22 Thomas Burgess, Greeks in America (Boston, 1913), 165, 166, 167; Saloutos Greeks in the United States, 6 6 - 6 9 . 21

23

Two of these merchants were the uncles of Mrs. Alex Rizos, a U t a h resident for fifty-five

24

United

years. States,

Another version gave the men twenty-four hours to leave. Saloutos, Greeks in the 62.

25 News Advocate (Price, U t a h ) , November 16, 1922; Saloutos, Greeks in the United States, 6 6 ; Colorado, Ludlow, Report of the Special Board of Officers Appointed by the Governor of Colorado (Denver, 1914), 6; C. W. V a r n u m , Statement of the Strike Situation in Colorado. A report of the special committee appointed to investigate and report to Kensington Council no. 16, Junior Order United American Mechanics (Denver, 1914).


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said: "The importation of contract labor and then of the worst offscourings of Europe to take the place of intelligent, civilized labor in the mines has almost driven American labor from the field, more especially in the East." 26 The word "Greek" was used indiscriminately to refer to any Balkan accused of a crime. A crusading Greek editor said, "After all, we Greeks of the United States have plenty of problems of our own without having the Slavs burden us with theirs." 27 A small number of Greeks were attempting to establish themselves in business during this early period and fought against overpowering resistance. The action of a mass meeting in Montana was typical.' GREEKS NOT WANTED IN MONTANA Mass Meeting Held to Consider Ridding Great Falls of Undesirables . . . Greek element being established here. . . . Within past six m o n t h s many Greeks have located in this city and invested money in business blocks, restaurants and other small business enterprises. . . . T h e Resolution provided that a committee be appointed to confer with the Greeks a n d induce them to leave the city.

In the 1909 strike at the Murray smelter, a public mass meeting was called for the purpose of "ridding Murray of the foreigners." Greeks, Italians, and Austrians were discharged. "All white men who were compelled to stay out on acount of the attitude of the strikers" were allowed to return. 29 Conscious of the contempt the Americans had towards them, Greek clannishness, fostered by the Turks for centuries, increased. The Greeks had brought with them the quality of General Karaiskakis who sometimes played the Greek trumpet and sometimes the Turkish toubelekia. The Greek labor agent, the dishonest padrone who got them jobs at the cost of a gold piece and a monthly fee; the native Americans who charged them more at the mine company stores than they did the native and Northern European immigrant groups; and those who forced them to live in firetrap houses and tenements were to the Greek immigrants only a replacement of their old enemies, the Turks. To them the Greeks showed not their true selves, but whatever suited the occasion: obsequiousness, friendliness, anger — whichever trumpet or toubelekia was necessary at the moment. 26

J. W. Dilley, History of the Scofield Mine Disaster (Provo, 1900), 179. Saloutos, Greeks in the United States, 70. 28 Standard (Ogden, Utah), April 9, 1909. 29 Salt Lake Tribune, May 6, 1909. 27


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The Americans were afraid, and for good reason, that the "foreigners would take over." A million immigrants were coming into the country each year,30 a staggering prospect for any nation to face, even one as large and rich as the United States. Americans knew this country needed immigrants to mine, build, and farm, but they wanted Anglo-Saxons and other Northern European immigrant stock to do this. Yet there were not enough of them. Bitter denunciations of the Balkan and Mediterranean people filled the newspapers of the day. The United States was in danger of supporting an outcropping "of insane asylums and almshouses filled with this human flotsam, and the whole tone of American life, social, moral, and political, has been lowered and vulgarized by them." 31 Comparisons between the immigrants and the laboring classes in the United States were unfairly made. "The low cultural level of immigrants was now still more apparent than in the days of the Irish influx because meantime the U.S. masses had greatly advanced." 32 In 1907 the U.S. Immigration Commission was appointed to study the problem and in 1910 presented its conclusions. Later another report was made by Dr. Harry Laughlin of the Carnegie Institute. Both of these commissions advised that immigrants from Russia and Southern Europe be discouraged from entering the United States because of racial and social inferiority.33 The findings were widely publicized. These damaging, unscientific investigations resulted later in the Johnson Act of 1921 that was a great blow to the Greeks. From that year on Greek immigrants were limited to one hundred a year. The methods used by these commissions have been discredited, but the effect of the reports on the Greeks and other South European immigrants was long lasting. Not only was the immigrant generation affected, but their children grew up under immense prejudice. O a l t Lake City was the center for Greek immigrants in Utah. Americans called "Greek Town," located on Second South Second West and Fifth West, were coffeehouses, restaurants, candy stores, two Greek newspapers, and stores selling octopi, tobacco, olive oil, goat cheese, liquors, figs, and dates.

In what between saloons, Turkish

30 Encyclopedia Britannica, 1954 ed., s.v. "Migration." " I n each of the six years, 1905-07, 1910, and 1913-14, the number exceeded 1,000,000. T h e greatest number of immigrants arriving in any one year was 1,285,000 in 1907." 31 Oscar Handlin, Race and Nationality in American Life (New York, 1957), 77. 32 Encyclopedia Britannica, 1954 ed., s.v. "Migration." 33 Ibid.; Handlin, Race and Nationality, 7 7 - 7 8 ; John Higham, Strangers in the Land (New Brunswick, 1955).


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Church services for the all-male congregation were held on the third floor of the Utah National Bank Building at the corner of Main Street and First South. Plans were soon made for a church on Fourth South between Third and Fourth West. It was consecrated on October 29, 1905, and served the Greek, Serbian, and Russian people.34 Early priests in America were from impoverished villages and were poorly educated. Better educated priests wanted to remain in large cities, "near civilization." Few came willingly to Utah; fewer still wanted to serve in Carbon County, "the Siberia for Greek Orthodox priests in America." Defrocked priests at times conducted liturgies for congregations that would have had no clergy otherwise. Three enlightened priests of Utah later rose in the church hierarchy. One of them, Father Artemios Stamatiades, is Archbishop of Nablus in Jerusalem. In Greek Town the young immigrants found that all work was dispensed by Leonidas G. Skliris, leading Greek labor agent in the West. He was called the "Czar of the Greeks" and was a figure of power as labor agent for Utah Copper Company, Western Pacific Railroad, Denver & Rio Grande Western Railroad, and the Carbon County coal mines. With three brothers and other subordinates, he exact34 For the history of the Greek church in Salt Lake City, see the fiftieth anniversary memorial book, Holy Trinity Greek Church office. Officers of the board were Nicholas P. Stathakos, president; Stavros Skliris, vice-president; Ernest Pappas, secretary; and George Chrystophylou, treasurer.

Father Arteminos Stamatiades, an early Greek priest in Price and Salt Lake City, now Archbishop of Nablus in the Holy Land. Photograph furnished by Mrs. Ted Heleotes.


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ed a sum of money from each immigrant seeking work in mines, smelters, mills, "extra" and section gangs, and on road crews. He had contacts with labor agents in Idaho, Wyoming, Colorado, Nevada, and California. With a telegram or telephone call, he could have any number of men traveling wherever he designated. Not until they arrived at the appointed place did the men know what they would be doing, and often they found they were to be used as strikebreakers. The men were desperate for jobs; they waited in coffeehouses for months without work. Only the most menial type of labor was available to them; they neither spoke the language of the country nor had special skills. They had come from a country long accustomed to the Turkish pattern of paying bureaucrats and petty officials for the smallest of services. Skliris's web reached throughout the West, and the immigrants paid not only for their jobs but a monthly sum thereafter. Their need for work was so great that, at first, they did not question the "Czar of the Greeks." The laborers were sent to five areas: the Bingham copper mines, the Magna mill and Garfield smelter, the Murray-Midvale smelter, Carbon County where thirty mines worked three shifts and five hundred dome-shaped coking ovens burned continuously, Ogden at the Oregon Short Line Railyards (later the Union Pacific) and north of it where the narrow-gauge rails of the railroad were being changed to standard gauge. The men lived in shacks and in boardinghouses. The various nationalities, Serbians, Croatians, Italians, Austrians, and Greeks, lived separately as a rule. The Greeks from the Island of Crete lived apart from the other Greeks. The Cretans had left their country but recently freed of the Turks. From long isolation they considered themselves Cretans first and signed the mine and smelter rolls as Cretans, not Greeks. Each nationality had its own foreman, someone who spoke a few more words of English than they. Each group also had one or more interpreters. Almost all of the Greeks had a year or two of grammar school in Greece; some, however, could neither read nor write. The man with four years of grammar school, the extent of grade school education in those days, was considered educated. These men learned English quickly. With their pocket-sized English-Greek dictionaries, they became interpreters for their countrymen. They also interpreted for the men at court. A man could languish in jail a month as one did in Soldier Summit seventy miles south of Salt Lake City. An interpreter came along to explain to him that in America it was a crime to catch fish in a trap as he had done in his village.35 35 Reminiscence of Stylian Staes, Greek vice consul of U t a h , Wyoming, I d a h o , and Nevada, 1921-22, to the author in the 1930's.


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A man who could only shrug while a judge castigated him for assault— the young Greeks had become notoriously known for fighting anyone who belittled their nationality — required the services of an interpreter to smooth his way with the law. Most important, as the Greeks took out citizenship papers, they needed an interpreter to teach them the correct answers and, if the judge was venal, the interpreter acted as the intermediary for a bribe. A few interpreters were of high character; the majority were confidence men. Interpreters were indispensible to The outside forces of American fellow Greeks during the first prejudice and rejection were nearly quarter of the century. This is balanced by the nefarious hold over George Anton, an interpreter of integrity in the Carbon County the Greek laborers not only of labor coal camps. Photograph agents, but also of interpreters. With furnished by Mrs. Gus Anton. their better Greek education, from the more sophisticated towns and cities of Greece, and with a distaste for manual labor, the interpreters managed to live well by convincing the illiterate Greeks they needed their services for the most routine matters. For filling out a money order to Greece, the interpreters charged exorbitant prices. They represented minor court matters as serious charges that could lead to expulsion from the country. In addition to his own fee, the interpreter added the bribe of an official who sometimes existed but often did not. Many beatings and killings among early Greeks that baffled the authorities were the revenge of laborers for the cruel acts of interpreters and of labor agents. Not speaking the native language and with little trust in American justice, the Greeks often scoured the West until they found their persecutor. In Winter Quarters, Utah, a Greek miner killed a labor agent working under Leonidas Skliris. Shaving off his mustache to elude the sheriff and with the help of his countrymen, he escaped to Greece, a reversal of the usual vendetta. The men suffered from homesickness. There were fewer than ten Greek women in Utah by 1910. Mothers, grandmothers, and sisters were not there to honor them with feasts on the day of the saints for whom each


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Utah Historical Quarterly

was named nor to prepare the fast foods for the forty days before the great church events — Christmas, Easter, and the Dormition of the Virgin on August 15. When one of them was buried, no women sat by the casket and keened the mirologia, the Words of Fate. The comforts that a patriarchal society had provided them in their native land were memories. The coffeehouse was their home and their only social life. After the long hours in the mine or mill, the men washed themselves — in Helper the men used the YMCA showers — and put on their Sunday suits for their visit to the coffeehouse. It was important to them to dress well, a sign of respectability. The coffeehouse was the Greeks' own melting pot. Laborers, small businessmen, labor agents, interpreters, Greek government officials, priests, traveling newspaper reporters, gamblers, and panderers met there. To the men who had spent long desolate months laying track across deserts and over mountains and to herders who had brought sheep to winter grounds, the coffeehouse was their comfort, protection, and reassurance. In the barren room of tables and chairs with basil plants lining the window sills and calendars of pretty women and pictures of grizzled Greek An Ogden coffeehouse in the early 1900's. Religious articles in the background indicate that visiting priests held liturgies. Photograph by Mary Kogianes and Nina Cutrubus.

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Exile

119

patriots on the wall, the men sipped Turkish coffee, read Greek newspapers, smoked the many-tubed nargile, played cards, and talked for hours. Conversation, a great love of the Greeks, expanded from small to larger and larger circles, from the recounting of trivial incidents on their jobs, to extolling their sisters and cousins' virtues for matchmaking purposes, the peculiarity of American customs and events, world happenings, the life they would lead when they returned to Greece, and Greek politics. At long intervals wandering showmen from Greece came with puppet shows, the Karagiozi, where the slyly stupid Greek peasant always got the better of the supposedly crafty Turk. At even longer intervals shabby Greek women sang and danced to the rustle of tambourines, but they were Greek and brought nostalgic memories to dispel the evening's loneliness. To the Americans the coffeehouse was the symbol of all that was offensive about the Greek immigrants. Yet without it the men would have led a life close to that of work animals. Older men assumed the patriarchal authority allotted them by Greek custom. They kept many young men from falling into the life of the gamblers and procurers who made the rounds of mining camps on paydays. Nick Dandolas, Nick the Greek, had a string of such young men whom he staked to card games. In a Carbon County mining town one payday night, a protege lost $50,000. The American expression: "Easy comes, easy goes" became theirs. In each coffeehouse there was at least one better educated man with an altruistic interest in the younger men. Regularly he appeared in court to extricate the men from disturbance-of-the-peace charges and brought them back to the coffeehouse to face its judgment. A recalcitrant could find himself participating in a quickly arranged marriage to solve his impulsiveness. It was an impossible task; there were thousands of exuberant young Greeks. By 1916 there were three thousand of them alone in Carbon County mining camps. Their ages ranged from a few at nine years of age to the majority at seventeen and nineteen. They were without the domination of their parents and family who had always maintained carefully prescribed rules of conduct. The freedom of American women confused and demoralized Greek men; women in America crossed their legs, smoked, and stopped to talk with men acquaintances on the streets. Even after sending monthly sums for their sisters' dowries, the men still had money to spend. In coffeehouses and cigar stores, professional gamblers and procurers were waiting for them. Women were scarce. Tern-


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pers exploded over cards, old-country feuds, and politics. "Wild Greeks" the Americans called them. The youngest ones, the water boys on labor gangs and in mines, are tragic figures in Greek social history. The poor but rhythmic life of their villages had been replaced by disorder and depravity. Shows of sexual perversions were common entertainment. Many who could have married later heeded a taboo of their people and refrained. Venereal disease was rampant. Men who became infected believed they would always have "bad blood" and could never marry and defile women and future children. They left the mainstream of Greek immigrant life and lived by their wits, knowing only coffeehouses and third-rate hotels, lonely and forgotten in old age. Americans looking into coffeehouses at strange dark men reading newspapers in foreign lettering, maiming, even killing each other over oldcountry politics agreed with current editorials: the Greeks could never be assimilated into American life. They were bloodthirsty, the native Americans said. The vendetta, that is still a part of Greek peasant life, was an aspect of Greek immigrant life. Many Greeks whose families' honor had been disgraced, murdered the offenders and fled to America. Even here the murderers were not safe. Male members of their victims' families followed to avenge the crime, to "wipe the stain from the family's name." Of these vendettas, Patrick Leigh Fermor says: Such murders are not in any way comparable to the sinister murders of the Mafia or the C a m o r r a [of Ireland] which are rooted in squalid urban greed and enforced by terrorism . . . . M a n y of these tragedies are, by ageold standards, innocent; they are prompted by feelings of duty and conducted with honour. ! ( i 30

Patrick Leigh Fermor, Roumeli

(New York, 1962), 127.

A vendetta. A stain on a family's honor required avengement. The first Greek church in Salt Lake City, on Fourth South between Third and Fourth West. The priest is Archimandrite Dorotheos Bourazanis. Photograph furnished by Angelo Heleotes.


Bingham, where many Greeks got their start in America. Aerial view from Yampa Mine. Utah State Historical Society photograph.

The Great Bingham Strike of 1912 And Expulsion of the Padrone

B

1912 T H E GREAT N U M B E R of Greek immigrants were still in the mines. They were still paying Leonidas Skliris for their jobs. A monthly cut of their wages was divided between Skliris and straw bosses. For several years the Greeks had been questioning the right of Skliris and his men to live off their labor. *Y

37

37 T h e following material on Bingham is primarily taken from Helen Zeese Papanikolas, "Life and Labor Among the Immigrants of Bingham Canyon," Utah Historical Quarterly, 33 (Fall, 1965), 289-315.


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In Bingham the Greeks, living in Copperfield next to the Japanese, their wrestling and card-playing companions, numbered 1,210. Englishspeaking workmen were leaving mining for other opportunities, and South Europeans quickly took their places. Italians were next in number, 639; Austrians, 564; Japanese, 254; Finns, 217; English, 161; Bulgarians, 60; Swedes, 59; Irish, 52; and Germans, 23. 38 Zack Tallas, at the time a young Greek fireman in Copperfield, described Bingham in that year. I t was green then, not as it was later with the d u m p s . T h e r e were springs and wildflowers everywhere. I n the draws of the mountains were three goat ranches r u n by Greeks. N o w they're filled u p with capping. T h e companies had their boardinghouses, but other people ran boardinghouses too. T h e r e were so many men — don't believe the census . . . that they built powder-box houses on company property and went to the barbershops to take a b a t h . Each nationality h a d its own stores a n d bakeries. T h e Greeks h a d four or five bakeries, five candy stores, a n d ten coffeehouses. . . . T h e Greeks, Serbians, Austrians, and Italians feuded with each other and a m o n g themselves. Killings were not unusual. T h e r e was a regular redlight district. . . . I n the mines a person h a d to be on his g u a r d ; there were company spies w h o spoke their language and w h o carried all r u m o r a n d talk of labor troubles to the mine officials. T h e companies were enemies. Miners were killed regularly. My brother was killed and the C o m p a n y sent my parents three h u n d r e d dollars. M a n y of the dead h a d wives a n d young children in the old country. 3 9

On the long, winding street of the town, labor organizers — the "Bolsheviks," the "Wobblies," the "labor agitators"—were active. The Greeks were not interested in their strike talk. They were interested in digging copper only for the money that would take them out of the mines. An exception was Louis Theos (Theodoropoulos) who was known among his fellow Greeks as an officer of the IWW and who had done undercover work for unions in the Carbon County coal mines. The miners' talk of grievances was, however, something they understood. They also had grievances. They bitterly resented their suave, welldressed countryman, Skliris, who lived in the luxury of the newly built Hotel Utah on the money he extracted from them. If they did not trade at the Pan Hellenic Grocery Store, he threatened them with discharge. Also, they were not paid as much as the Japanese who worked as bank men. (With ropes tied around their waists, the men lowered themselves 38 39

Utah, Report of the State Bureau of Immigration, Personal interview, J a n u a r y 17, 1964.

Labor and Statistics

1911—1912, 31.


Bingham Strike of 1912

123

over the banks and swung their picks into the ore — a dangerous occupation. ) On May 1, 1912, the Western Federation of Labor called a strike at the lead plant of the American Smelting and Refining Company in Murray demanding recognition of the union and an increase in wages from $1.75 per day to $2.00 per day. The strike lasted six weeks, involved between eight to nine hundred men, and closed the smelter for a short time. The strike was broken by Cretans from Bingham and Helper sent under orders of Skliris. The Greeks saw they were still the puppets of the labor agent. During the summer the labor organizers increased their missionary work among the immigrants. They first had to overcome distrust and apathy. The immigrants had all come from cultures where the rich were the powerful and that was the fate of life. The labor organizers lived precariously, attempting to make themselves and their principles known to the miners and at the same time forced to hide their identity from the law. The authorities were alert to the vaguest of rumors on which to base indictments for sedition, and if unsuccessful in this, they brought vagrancy charges against labor organizers and put them in jail. September of 1912 was an auspicious time for a strike. When the officials of the Western Federation of Labor began their talks, they found the Greeks incensed and ready. The anger of the Greeks explains the phenomenal success of the Federation in the summer of 1912. Voler V. Viles's report to the U. S. Department of Commerce showred 250 union members in July, 900 on August 27, and 2,500 in October. 40 At a meeting on the seventeenth of September, attended by a thousand miners, President Charles W. Moyer of the Federation asked that further attempts be made to negotiate with the mine officials before calling a strike. At the time the payscale was $2.00 per day for surface men, $2.50 per day for muckers (diggers), and $3.00 per day for miners.41 The union intended to ask for recognition of the Federation and a 50-cent a day raise for all workers. The men refused Moyer's suggestion and unanimously voted a walkout immediately affecting 4,800 men. The American-born miners had stayed away from the meeting, not wanting to align themselves with the "foreigners." Another 150 steam-shovel men of American nationality were opposed to the strike, but "did not want to go against the wishes of the majority." 42 40

U t a h , Report of State Bureau of Immigration, Ibid., 31. 42 Salt Lake Tribune, September 18, 1912.

41

Labor, and Statistics,

1911-1912,

30.


124

Utah Historical Quarterly T h e foreigners were jubilant . . . chiefly Greeks a n d Austrians . . . shooting off firearms a n d intimidating American laborers. W h e n deputies attempted to quell the disturbance, the foreigners showed their wildest disorder. O n e Greek after firing several times after being ordered to cease, was shot in the wrist by Deputy Sheriff Schweitzer. T h e shot caused more excitement and a m o b of foreign laborers chased the deputy w h o was rescued by other officers. 43

Fifty National Guard sharpshooters from Fort Douglas and twentyfive deputy sheriffs from Salt Lake City, supplied with several thousand rounds of ammunition, were brought in. Rifles from the munition stores of the Utah National Guard were made ready for delivery to Bingham. Saloons and gambling halls were closed, and railroad crossings and mines were floodlighted. The day after the walkout, President Moyer told eight hundred strikers at the Bingham Theater that the union officials had waited all day for an answrer from the mine managers and had not received one. R. C. Gemmel, of Utah Copper, told the press that "we do not treat with officers of the union regarding matters connected with the mines. We do not recognize the Federation." Gemmel said, "I don't think they [the miners] have any grievance. It is the officials of the miners' union who have stirred up trouble." He stated the following day that "We advanced the men twentyfive cents [to become effective in November]. This was voluntary." If the miners would work through committees, Gemmel claimed, the trouble could be adjusted.44 President Moyer countered, "as for the men meeting with the companies as individuals, I will only say that a great many of them can not speak the English language, and their only opportunity is through their authorized representatives." Moyer denied the raise to the miners was voluntary, insisting it was the result of a similar raise in the mines of Montana the past June. Even a 50-cent increase, he said, would be less than what the Montana miners received for the same work. Moyer stated that "their [the miners] hours are too long and the current high price of copper justifies the raise." 45 The strikers took blankets and guns and settled in advantageous positions on the mountainsides. On the morning of September 19, the strikers were given until noon to leave the mines; and if this ultimatum was defied, Salt Lake County Sheriff Joseph Sharp threatened to send 250 deputies armed with Winchesters. Governor William H. Spry said, "We are going 43

Deseret Evening News (Salt Lake City), September 18, 1912. Ibid., September 17, 18, 1912; Salt Lake Tribune, September 18, 1912. 45 Salt Lake Tribune, September 18, 1912; Deseret Evening News, September 17, 18, 1912. 41


Bingham Strike of 1912

125

up on the hill and drive them down." The governor was believed to be, according to the Deseret Evening News, "one of the party [who wanted] to attack the foreigners' stronghold." W i t h 800 foreign strikers a r m e d with rifles a n d revolvers strongly entrenched in the precipitious m o u n t a i n ledges across the canyon from the U t a h C o p p e r Mine, raking the mine workings with a hail of lead at every a t t e m p t of railroad employees or d e p u t y sheriffs to enter the grounds, the strike situation has reached its initial crisis. 46

A last attempt was made by President Moyer to convince the strikers to leave the mountainside. He sent Yanco Terzich, a director of the Federation, with his message, but his climb was in vain. While the union spoke of wages, the Greeks, mostly Cretans "famed as men who, when the spirit moves them to fight, are difficult to control," were concerned first with getting Skliris fired. Utah Copper Company posted notices in the Greek language informing the men that they were not required to pay for their jobs, and Vice-President Daniel C. Jackling in San Francisco for business meetings sent a telegram to the same effect. Mr. Gemmel defended Skliris; and Governor William Spry, in response to a letter from one of the Greeks explaining Skliris's extortion practices, sent out a "Greek detective" who predictably found no such practices.47 Jackling, Moyer said, refused to believe the padrone system existed, perhaps because he was too busy. "I believe he does not look to the methods of Skliris and his ilk, but simply asks cheap labor no matter how it comes."48 Governor Spry quickly called a meeting with Sheriff Sharp, Adjutant General E. A. Wedgwood (commander of the National Guard at Fort Douglas), and the mine operators to discuss the calling out of the militia and the proclaiming of martial law. Moyer and Terzich were invited to give testimony as to whether "the striking foreigners [were] amenable to the counsel of the strike leaders." The Salt Lake Tribune continued: "In Bingham the belief is prevalent that the foreign element among the strikers will be a law unto themselves despite the protestations of President Moyer." The union, Moyer admitted, could not handle the Greeks.49 40

Salt Lake Tribune, September 19, 1912; Deseret Evening News, September 19, 1912. Salt Lake Herald Republican. September 19, 20, 1912; Salt Lake Tribune, September 20, 1912; Deseret Evening News, September 20, 1912; State of Utah, Governors' Papers (William H . Spry [1909-1916]), correspondence files in the U t a h State Archives, State Capitol. Signatures of Greek miners and fees they paid Skliris were collected in a notebook by Louis Theos. 47

48 49

Herald Republican, Salt Lake Tribune,

September 20, 1912. September 19, 1912; Deseret Evening

News, September 19, 1912.


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"Foreigners" had bought arms in quantity from Salt Lake City hardware and sporting-goods stores. "The men are known to be from Bingham because they took the 3:15 train back to that camp." Brigham store owners had stocked up on revolvers. They were requiring cash for all merchandise and were not sending out their delivery wagons. Druggists were told not to sell liquor. Deputies were arriving on every train. 50 The Salt Lake Herald Republican reported on the "vile conditions" of the powder-box houses where miners slept in shifts and yet sent $580,000 in money orders to Europe during the past year.51 In Bingham businessmen and native Americans were hostile to the strikers knowing the long economic misery that would come to the town. Rumors and attempts to prove the immigrants ungrateful to America kept the town in an unheaval. All mines now except the Apex, which was working under Moyer's orders, were out on strike. Only Ohio Copper officials would consider a conference with the union. In San Francisco Jackling told the press, "When I fight, I'll fight hard." 52 The strikers remained on the mountainside, and the deputies did not go up and drive them down. The attack was delayed by rumors that strikers had broken into the Utah Construction tunnel and stolen sixty cases of dynamite. While the deputies hesitated, two hundred Austrians descended on the Denver and Rio Grande trestle between lower and upper Bingham and fired on anyone attempting to cross it. Governor Spry had expected the strikers to heed the ultimatum to leave the mines and was waiting in the Bingham Theater to talk with them. His visit seemed fruitless until a bearded priest in black robes with the tall black priest's hat on his head walked up Main Street and up the mountain. T h e i r warlike spirit subdued temporarily by a lone priest of the Greek C h u r c h , F a t h e r Vasilios Lambrides, w h o exhorted t h e m in the n a m e of their religion to refrain from further violence and defiance of the law, the army of strikers encamped on the m o u n t a i n side c o m m a n d i n g the works of the U t a h C o p p e r Company, voluntarily descending from their stronghold yesterday afternoon. T h e little father dressed in flowing clerical robes with a glittering cross of gold upon his breast, went a m o n g the militant strikers like the 50

Deseret Evening News, September 19, 1912. Herald Republican, September 20, 1912. In his report to the D e p a r t m e n t of Commerce, the government immigrant inspector gave information on drafts and money orders sent to foreign countries. According to the bankers of Bingham Canyon, only about thirty per cent of the money paid out by the mining companies remained in Bingham Canyon. U t a h , Report of State Bureau of Immigration, Labor and Statistics, 1911-1912, 31—32. 52 Salt Lake Tribune, September 19, 1912. 51


Bingham Strike of 1912

127

spirit of peace and brought "the truce of God." Everywhere guns were laid aside for him and hats were doffed in respectful salute. With few exceptions the men left their trenches and trooped down to the meeting place where Governor Spry was waiting to address them.

There, Sheriff Sharp wisely decided not to disarm the strikers although 250 deputies were at his service. The Greek miners "declared with vociferous acclaim" that they would go back to work at the present scale if Utah Copper would refuse to have anything to do with Leonidas G. Skliris, "Czar of the Greeks." A carpenter, John (Scotty) Curie, speaking with a brogue, told the mine officials that the Greeks should not be given the entire responsibility for the strike because Italians and Austrians were also involved. Skliris, he told them, was the strike issue. Chris Kiousios repeated Scotty's speech in Greek to the strikers' "thunderous applause." N. P. Stathakos, a Greek community leader and banker, spoke to the Greeks urging them to be peaceful. A telegram was read from D.C. Jackling, representing Utah Copper, reiterating his previous statement that men did not have to pay to get jobs at Utah Copper. Governor Spry spoke in platitudes, and Robert C. Gemmel defended Skliris. Angrily the strikers left to continue the strike.53 Moyer was asked to take Governor Spry and his party up the mountainside. The barricades were empty but "Cretans with rifles were far up. When Moyer's attention was called to them he said they were probably hunting jackrabbits." The next day about three hundred strikers patrolled the BinghamGarfield Line ready to shoot at strikebreakers who were being brought into town. Rumors that Skliris and his underlings were recruiting Greek strikebreakers and that if the strikers did not capitulate immediately, they would be blacklisted only angered the miners and made them more determined in their fight against the labor agent. To further demoralize and subjugate the men, a freight train of hopper ore cars was slowly driven from Magna to Bingham. Rifles were tied in such a way that their muzzles protruded making it appear that men were crouched below holding them. The disloyalty of their fellow Greeks only added fuel to the Cretans' rage. Taking a large supply of ammunition, they returned to their positions on the mountains. Despite the strikers' vigilance strikebreakers were finding ways of entering Bingham unnoticed. The townspeople were asking why the pa53

Ibid., September 20, 1912.


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trols had not been disarmed, and the sheriff's office assured them that this would be done in the afternoon. People were leaving the canyon by the hundreds on the daily trains. The newspapers reported "White residents leaving camp, . . . The two daily trains carry about 200 of the better element of the camp, . . . the foreign element of Greeks, Italians, Austrians and Cretans are dominant in a situation into which the 'white' element has been forced against its will."54 The steady increase of deputies gave no confidence to the people of Bingham. Moyer said that among them were "irresponsible riff-raff of Salt Lake." Promiscuous shooting, theft, drunkenness, and the accidental killing of one deputy by another bore this out. Moyer asked if Sheriff Sharp and Governor Spry would "deputize a couple-hundred armed men to protect the strikers from the gunmen of Utah Copper . . . the strikers, many of them citizens, who have committed the awful crime of banding together and demanding a better pay of their employers."55 Skliris returned from Colorado and Idaho where he found young unemployed Greeks through the labor agents, Karavellas and Babalis. He defended his fifteen years as a labor agent in the West, insisting that he would pay $5,000 to anyone who could prove the padrone charge, the money to be used as a monument for Governor Stuenenberg or for any other appropriate purpose. The Greek employees of Utah Copper were loyal, he said, but were coerced by an armed mob. 56 Ernest K. Pappas, spokesman for the Greeks, answered Skliris saying, "Where there is so much smoke, there must be some fire." His letter to the Deseret Evening News continued: This p a d r o n e has grown rich on his exploitation of Greek laborers w h o m he h a d induced to come to California, U t a h , N e v a d a and Colorado by advertising in all Greek newspapers in the U n i t e d States. These newspapers are widely circulated in Greece and Crete. O n arrival these immigrants pay Skliris or his underlings $5 to $20 or more. This applies not only to B i n g h a m Canyon, but coal mines at Castle Gate, Kenilworth, Helper, Sunnyside, Scofield, etc. T h e Greeks would not have left the mines h a d the p a d r o n e system not been in effect. As to the grocery store charge, it is well known that Steve G. Skliris, Leon G. Skliris' representative, approves every Greek hired by U t a h Cop54

Deseret Evening News, September 20, 1912. Herald Republican, September 20, 1912; Deseret Evening News, October 11 12 22 26 November 9, 1912; Salt Lake Tribune, September 21, October 18, 1912. 56 Deseret Evening News, September 22, 1912. Frank Stuenenberg, governor of Idaho ( 1 8 9 7 - 1 9 0 1 ) , was killed by a bomb in 1905 during mine labor troubles. T h e court case won renown because of the lawyers—William E. Borah represented the state and Clarence Darrow the accused. 55


Bingham Strike of 1912

129

per a n d threatens with dismissal those w h o d o not trade at Pan Hellenic. Goes farther by saying, "Your account this m o n t h is too small. You've been buying elsewhere. W e look out for your job, you look out for u s . " . . . If Greeks are loyal, why did they join union head first, 700 in one night took oath to gain freedom from p a d r o n e system. I accept M r . Skliris' offer of $5,000 . . . deposit it in a Salt Lake bank with three judges appointed to decide question, one to be appointed by Governor Spry, one by Western Federation of Labor a n d one by U t a h Copper. 5 7

Two days later Skliris resigned. Nothing more came of his $5,000 offer. The Greeks celebrated in the Copperfield coffeehouses before gathering again on the hills. At this point they were ready to go back to work, but President Moyer convinced them that Skliris's resignation was secondary to the union's demands, and the strikers themselves were wary of Skliris saying he could have "made a deal" with the Utah Copper and would again supply the company with labor as soon as the strike was over.58 The strikers became better organized and formed themselves into sixhour shifts with over a thousand men on picket duty. Skliris's resignation had brought the first sign of optimism to the town. Miners spent their free time repairing their cabins, but, . . . last night coyotes appeared on the moon-licked canyon slope a n d broke the silence with their calls. This recalled an old superstition t h a t the a p p e a r a n c e of these animals in a mining c a m p prefaces either a long tie-up or a catastrophe. 5 9

The Japanese, the better-paid gambling companions of the Greeks, had also gone out with the rest of the men. T h e Greeks, it is said, did not consult t h e m before striking b u t w h e n the walkout occurred the Orientals took it for granted that work was suspended. A m o n g t h e m is Coney Shibota, said to be the c h a m p i o n wrestler of the c a m p . H e is a powerfully constructed m a n for his race a n d has downed m a n y stalwart Greeks. T h e other Japanese have tacitly appointed him leader.ÂŽ0

The union leaders now threatened a general strike if the union was not recognized. Strikebreakers were steadily infiltrating into Bingham, even though strikers were covering all entrances to the town. I t was reported t h a t the strikers, largely Greeks, h a d scattered out along the highways to a n d from Bingham a n d are now holding u p a u t o mobiles a n d vehicles to learn w h e t h e r the occupants a r e strikebreakers. 6 1 57

Deseret Evening News, September 22, 1912. Ibid., September 24, 1912; Herald Republican, September 24, 1912. 58 Deseret Evening News, September 27, 1912. 80 Salt Lake Tribune, September 26, 1912. 61 Ibid., September 28, 1912. 58


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The mine operators continued to ignore the union, and the Federation ordered three thousand miners out at the Ely, Nevada, Consolidated Mine. A Greek striker was killed there. In Bingham the operators were hopeful at activity which they misconstrued as the Greeks leaving Bingham. However, the Greeks had heard rumors that the companies were going to evict them from the powder-box houses they had built on company land and were taking the precaution of moving out before they were forced to leave.62 Strikebreakers were coming into town in growing numbers. Nearly five hundred were already settled in passenger trains made into sleeping cars in Bingham, and in six boxcars with kitchens at the Magna railyards. When a sufficient labor force was brought together, work would be resumed, the mine officials said. Rumors that Utah Copper had three machine guns were denied by its officials; Jackling reiterated that the mines would "have nothing to do with the Western Federation"; and on October 10 strikebreakers, mostly Greek, were brought in by boxcar. 63 Heavily guarded by mine guards and deputies, Highland Boy, owned by Utah Consolidated, began work with fifty strikebreakers on October 9. The next day a skeleton crew of one hundred men, using one steam shovel, resumed work at Utah Copper. Fighting between guards and strikers broke out. In one incident an unarmed Greek, Mike Katrakis, was ordered back by Sam Lewman, a guard, and shot in the leg as he turned. The Greeks became enraged and met at the Acropolis Coffeehouse owned by the Leventis brothers, one of whom, John Leventis, was the acknowledged leader, the Capitdnios, of the Cretan strikers. The strikers would doff their hats to their priest and community leader, but they followed only the orders of John Leventis. The streets were crowded and the miners were in an uproar over the shooting that required amputation of the striker's leg. Deputies said the shooting was accidental, but two Italian women who witnessed the shooting said it was intentional. The Greeks reported their houses had been entered by "several hundred gunmen" and ammunition and money stolen. A thousand Greeks met in the Greek Orthodox church in Salt Lake City and sent a telegram to their consul in Washington, D. C , protesting their treatment and asking for an investigation.64 Hundreds of strikebreakers were still arriving each day; by the middle of October five thousand were expected to be at work. The majority of K

- Ibid., October 2, 5, 1912. Deseret Evening News, October 5, 9, 10, 1912. 04 Ibid., October 11, 12, 1912; Salt Lake Tribune, October 12, 1912. 83


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these were miners from Mexico who had been driven out of their country by the revolution and gone to California. Another five hundred had been sent to Utah Copper by a New York labor agency. A later force arrived from Arizona and Mexico, and another 150 arrived the second week in November from Mexico and Wyoming. Utah Copper built housing for them behind the Bingham & Garfield Railway Depot.65 Tooele smeltermen, as the workers at Garfield had done earlier, passed a resolution refusing to handle ore mined by strikebreakers. To bring attention to their claims John Leventis, leader of the Greek strikers in the Bingham Strike of 1912. Photograph that deputies, were commit- furnished by Mrs. Joseph Coucourakis. ting "unlawful acts" under legal sanction, strikers and sympathizers held a rally that filled the Salt Lake Theatre. 66 On October 25 a battle in Galena Gulch, between strikebreakers and deputy sheriffs and strikers, ended with five men wounded. One of them, Harris Spinbon, a Greek, died two weeks later. The next day John and Steve Leventis were taken into custody at their coffeehouse on suspicion of having been involved in the shooting. On November 4, forty Greeks were arrested at the Acropolis Coffeehouse. Yanco Terzich, the Federation director, and E. G. Locke, the local secretary, tried to prevent the arrest of the men and were in turn arrested. A week later at the same coffeehouse, deputies went in to arrest Zaharias Rasiaskis in connection with the shooting at Galena Gulch. In the fight that followed three Greeks were shot. One of them, George Padaladonis (Papandonis), died two days later. J. H. White and another officer, Phil Culleton, of the Bingham Police DepartDeseret Evening News, October 14, 15, November 2, 14, 1912. Ibid., October 7, 14, 1912 ; Salt Lake Tribune, October 18, 1912.


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ment, went to the aid of an unarmed Greek who was being beaten by two guards. White arrested the guards and was discharged for his efforts. Culleton was given a future hearing. 67 On October 31 Mr. Jackling of Utah Copper announced the company was ready to increase wages, as had been planned at the beginning of the strike, by 25-cents per day. This was to go into effect the following month and would include the Ely and McGill mines. This, Mr. Jackling said, was in accordance with a 1909 agreement that specified an automatic increase in wages when copper reached 17-cents a pound. The announcement had no effect on the miners. Six weeks had passed with no sign of capitulation on either side. The miners were in desperate need. The Butte, Montana, members of the Western Federation sent help by voting $7,000 for the relief of the strikers. Single men asking for relief received $3.00 per week and family men $6.00. The strikers hoped that the companies would be willing to make concessions as the November 15 termination date of the strikebreakers' contracts approached. They hoped, too, that the inefficiency of the strikebreakers — caused by their lack of skill, their not being disciplined for regular work, and their being physically unaccustomed to hard labor -— would force the companies to reconsider their position. The companies showed no sign of retreating, and the strikers saw the futility of their cause. The strike gradually died. The Federation remained unrecognized; and the 50-cent raise asked by the miners was denied. A 25-cent raise was granted to the muckers and miners; the surface men were raised 20cents.68 During the duration of the strike, the mining industry suffered badly as did the smelting and milling plants. Normal operations took five months to achieve. Business and transportation wrere seriously affected in the entire county. The killers of the two strikers were never apprehended. The strike had, however, great importance. It broke the power of Leonidas Skliris who went to Mexico and became part owner of a mine there. The padrone system was brought into the open, and officials could no longer pretend it did not exist. The immigrant inspector's report for the year included the following: T h e exploitation of foreign labor in this State by professional agents is an evil t h a t should be eradicated. It was one of the causes that figured in the Bingham mining c a m p strike. W i t h some metalliferous and coal mining companies, a miner or laborer seeking employment can not secure such 67

Deseret Evening News, October 25, 26, November 4, 12, 13, 14, 1912. U t a h , Report of State Bureau of Immigration, Labor and Statistics, 1911-1912, Salt Lake Tribune, October 3 1 , 1912; Deseret Evening News, October 23, 1912. 68

30-31;


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until h e comes with a recommend of a p a d r o n e to w h o m he is obliged to pay from $25.00 to $50.00 for his job a n d a small sum m o n t h l y to hold the j o b after it is obtained. M a n y padrones secure from foreign laborers several thousand dollars each m o n t h a n d presumably "divy" with "higheru p officials" u n d e r w h o m they are working. 6 9

The bringing in of Greek strikebreakers had a disasterous effect on the Greek people. The strikers were Cretans; the strikebreakers were Greeks from other parts of Greece. The Cretan idea of having been moulded into a more courageous people, even a different people, by the long Turkish occupation that they had just overcome, that they had suffered while the mainland Greeks had lived in freedom and not been deeply concerned with Cretan enosis, union with the rest of Greece, intensified and produced a schism. Business partnerships between the two groups were seriously disturbed. Marriages between Cretan women and mainland Greeks caused great feuds. In Carbon County several attempted killings resulted from these marriages. Problems of the twenties were worsened by the bitter memory of the greed of Greek labor agents. 69

U t a h , Report

of State Bureau of Immigration,

Labor and Statistics,

1911-1912,

33.

N o w t h a t I leave for foreign lands, a n d we will be p a r t e d for m o n t h s , for years, let m e take something also from you, dearly beloved, azure land. Let m e carry an a m u l e t with me, to w a r d off evil, to w a r d off grief, a c h a r m to w a r d off sadness, death, a handful of earth, Greek e a r t h ! (Georgios Drossinis, Greek Earth, [ N e w York, 1 9 4 9 ] ) .

R a e Dalven, trans., in Modern

Greek

Poetry


A picture of bride of 1915. The weddine crowns symbolize the rule over the new household by the bride and groom. Mr. and Mrs. Angelo Heleotes. Photograph furnished by Angelo Heleotes.

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had left Bingham as the strike progressed ; Mexican strikebreakers took their places in the mine bringing a new minority to Bingham. Others returned to Greece to fight in the Balkan W a r of 1912. T h e Greek government considered anyone b o m on Greek SMALL N U M B E R OF GREEKS


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land a Greek citizen forever. The men who answered the arms call expected to be returning to Greece in the near future and the war merely hastened their repatriation. At least 42,000 Greeks throughout America reported to the Greek army.70 The number is conservative; statistics on Greek immigrants are not complete. Greeks from originally Greek lands, the "unredeemed" lands, considered themselves Greek citizens. The U. S. government determined an immigrant's nationality by his land of origin.71 As the Bingham strike waned, trouble began in the Colorado coal mines owned by John D. Rockefeller, Jr. 72 Again Cretans became leaders of the strikers with Louis Tikas at their head. Altogether seventy-four people were killed throughout the coal camps. Twenty-two of them were killed in the Ludlow Massacre, including eleven women and two children who suffocated in tents that had been set on fire. Tikas, whose bride was on her way from Crete to America, raised a white cloth of truce. When he reached the National Guard soldiers, their commander broke a rifle over his head and forced him into the crossfire of soldiers and strikers. Thirty Cretan miners with high-powered rifles walked over the mountains from Raton, New Mexico, to avenge him. A large contingent with guns and ammunition walked from Colorado Springs.73 Within hours after the tragedy, the news reached every coffeehouse in the West and reinforced the distrust of the immigrants toward the mine owners and the American government. Court martial proceedings revealed that Lieutenant K. E. Linderfelt, through rashness in using force and through unwillingness to understand the immigrant personality, was directly responsible for the battle of Ludlow. His punishment was five files reduction in rank.74 Now the Greek immigrants knew the full extent of the hostility felt for them. They retreated into a fiery nationalism, convinced that it was only a matter of time when they would finish their family obligations and return to their own country. The aim of the immigrants to furnish their sisters with dowries and to return to Greece with enough money to establish themselves in business 70

Theodore Saloutos, They Remember America (Los Angeles, 1956), 40. Ibid., 49. 72 Barron B. Beshoar, Out of the Depths (Denver, N.D.) ; Salt Lake Tribune, April 2 1 , 1914; Denver Post, April 2 1 , 1914; Wyoming Labor Journal, April 24, 1914; Rocky Mountain News (Denver), M a y 1, 1914. 73 Salt Lake Tribune, April 26, 1914. '4 Hugh Davis Graham and Ted Robert Gurr, Violence in America: Historical and Comparative Perspectives (Washington, D . C , 1969), 2 5 4 - 5 6 ; Colorado, Ludlow, Report of the Special Board, 8; Wyoming Labor Journal, June 19, 1914. 71


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Louis Tikas, the "Martyr of Ludlow," leader of the Greek strikers in Ludlow, Colorado, 1913—14. Photograph from the Colorado Historical Society.

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was fulfilled by forty per cent of them. 75 The other sixty per cent extended their stay hoping to leave the mines and section gangs as soon as they had saved a sufficient sum of money to enter business. After a few years, with a greater amount of money, they intended to return to Greece. The Greek government became alarmed at their native sons lengthening stay in America. Reports of their terrible living and working conditions were daily items on the front pages of Greek newspapers. Many young Greeks had returned to Greece crippled, blind, and destitute. A stream of newspaper reporters and government officials came to America to see the true situation. Few ventured far from the cities and towns. One held court in a hotel 7D

Stavrianos, Balkans Since 1453, 482.

The funeral of Louis Tikas in Trinidad, Colorado. Hundreds of Greeks walked from Colorado Springs and over the mountains from Raton, New Mexico, to avenge their countryman. Photograph from the Colorado Historical Society.


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lobby and lectured the laborers for not having established themselves in commercial ventures as had the Greek immigrants in Egypt. All advised the men to return to Greece as soon as possible.76 One of the most thorough investigators was a young woman, the wife of a publisher. Her education and her husband's advanced views of social equality allowed her an unusual freedom — a Greek woman traveling alone. Visiting briefly in the Greek enclaves of large cities, she sought out labor gangs dotting the Midwest, the West, and Canada. She arrived in Utah in the winter of 1914.77 A letter from the Utah Fuel Company management addressed to mine superintendents asked that they "familiarize her with our Greek employees." She traveled into the Clear Creek, Utah, mine three miles in blackness until coming to shadowed men. Narrow shafts of light shone from the carbide lamps on their caps. 76 77

Economou, Greeks of America, 75-76. Ibid., 42-63.

Coal miners in Castle Gate, Carbon County circa 1903. Photograph from the Fifteenth Anniversary Book of the "Assumption" Greek O r t h o d o x C h u r c h of Price.


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They stood in icy water rhythmically swinging pickaxes against a wall of coal. She called, "Have life, young Cretans! May the God of Crete be with you!" Startled by the unearthly feminine voice speaking their language, they dropped their picks and approached warily. The voice had seemed to come through the roof of coal from the sky. When light from their lamps fell on her face, they were astounded. A six-foot youth wept. Maria Economou visited the young Greeks' drafty shacks where ten to fifteen men lived in each one and took turns cooking. Water was brought from a distance, and outhouses were precariously near streams. The men made gallant attempts to find a chair for her and a piece of cloth to cover a table. They told her of the oppression and complete control over them of the bosses and of their great fear of becoming ill. Although the miners paid a dollar a month for medical aid, the young Greeks were reluctant to ask help of the company doctors. The doctors "treated them like animals." Their lives, the men said, were cheap; thousands more could take their places. Minor injuries worsened under careless medical care and led to amputations. They lived in constant fear of losing an arm or leg which would relegate them to penury for the rest of their lives. There was no compensation law. The "Company" decided what it would pay for an amputation, usually $300.00 to $500.00. Those with serious illnesses could expect to go to the "Kingdom of Pluto." At Bingham the journalist confronted R. C. Gemmel, manager of Utah Copper Company. In regard to housing, he stated that the men "choose their own habitations. Even if we built them new ones, they would not inhabit them." She was further disgusted at the enthusiasm the men showed for a tarnished Greek performer, Madame Sophia. Accompanied by violin and laouto, she danced and sang "with the grace of an elephant and the voice of a wolf." One of the men told her, "If we didn't have even this diversion from time to time, we would become animals completely." Until morning the men waited their turn to dance with "this famous Pavlova of the mines." Those men on isolated labor gangs, she found, fared far worse. Without school, without church, "their souls withered." A Greek proverb had arisen in the new country: "In America even the beasts can learn." But this was not true for the men on the extra gangs and road crews of the deserts and plains.


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With life so lacking in the least of comforts, a few of the men began to take out citizenship papers and to marry. The crowded boardinghouses and their camaraderie were for the very young; the men wanted their own homes. It was taking longer to complete their family responsibilities than they had expected. To postpone marriage until they returned to Greece was unrealistic. Too, even though they were laborers and worked hard, they were financially better off than educated men in Greece. Without their knowing it, their Americanization had begun. A small number of men married German, Jugoslavian, Italian, and native American women. The European women learned to speak Greek fluently and followed Greek customs. American wives and their children were seldom close to Greek culture. "Intermarriage with foreigners was considered as bad as death." Girls did marry Greeks "in spite of their peculiar traits . . . and were despised more than Greek women." 78 American women who married Greeks were usually waitresses and domestic workers, the only women besides prostitutes whom the men encountered. The majority of men brought picture brides from Greece. The brides came from the same village or nearby village as that of their groom. The Lucile Richens, "Social History of Sunnyside" (WPA Collection, U t a h State Historical Society),

A bride and groom from the Peloponnese, Mr. and Mrs. Emmanuel Papanikolas. Photograph furnished by Mrs. Emmanuel Papanikolas.


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m e n asked their families to choose their brides. W o m e n of the same age as the men were ignored for younger women who h a d been children when the men left Greece. I n Carbon County twenty-two families had their roots in the village of Mavrolithari (Black Rock) inRoumeli. All women who emigrated to America were not uneducated. They came because their families could not provide dowries. Greek laborers in America often married women who h a d educational and social backgrounds superior to their own. A great many of these women came in 1922 when a compulsory exchange of populations took place between Greece and Turkey. 7 9 Four-hundred thousand Turks left Greece for Turkey and 1.3 million Greeks were forced to leave Asia Minor where they had lived since the days of Homer. Wealthy Greek families were suddenly impoverished, a n d many of their daughters came to America. O t h e r women who h a d left their villages at the age of seven or eight to work for families in towns and cities also came to America. As servant girls they were not paid. T h e families for whom they worked were bound by honor to provide dowries later. _^^__-pppÂť""""""VH^ Death or changes in the employers' cir.JMH cumstances left many servant girls with w^ igjK Mfc dowry money too meager for marriage but enough for passage to America. Marriages for these women were arranged by relatives. If a woman had no kin, a koumbdros, the best m a n at her parents' wedding or the godfather of a child in the family (a sacred relationship more binding than one of blood), assumed the responsibility. If no one was available, any m a n or woman, from the same province if possible, considered it a duty to find her the most suitable husband. Some unbetrothed women came properly accompanied by brothers or cousins. Jubilant young men rushed to make their bids. T h e inclinations of the women's male relatives, more often From the mountains of Roumeli, Greece, to Helper, Utah. the practical matter of the size of the Mrs. Pete Jouflas. Photograph furnished by Mayor Chris Jouflas, Helper.

Stavrianos, Balkans Since 1453, 590.


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men's savings, determined who would be the grooms. As in their native land, the women had little voice in the matter. Regularly men, whose passage had been paid by a group of fellow villagers, returned to Greece, married, and came back to America with a bevy of young women for the waiting bachelors. Immigration officials became suspicious of these lone men surrounded by women. Newspapers and magazines published reports of girls being "sold" to immigrants. Women detectives were stationed on ships and trains to prevent these crimes. Invariably the waiting bachelors complained that the traveler had chosen "the best one for himself" and had charged too much for expenses. Yet so thankful were they for Greek wives and homes that the resentments were momentary. In America's work-day world of mine and mill shift work, where holidays honoring saints and martyrs were unknown, the marriage customs of Greece had no place. There was not the shrewd Peloponnesian exuberance over dowry haggling. Because Greek women were scarce in America, it was not uncommon for the dowry process to be reversed and for favors to be extended to the bride's family. The Roumeliot groom leading a procession of garlanded horses and mules (his mother left at home; a symbol perhaps of the cutting of the cord) to the bride's house where he lifted his bride on a horse adorned with an elaborately embroidered blanket and his friends loaded her dowry on the decorated animals became a memory. The Cretan week-long celebration to honor the bride and groom with roasted kids and abundant wine for the entire community, which often left families impoverished; the compliance with intricate taboos; and the singing of mantinddes, couplets, were reduced to three days of intense joy. Marriage was one of the seven mysteries (sacraments) and the most important event in a person's life. Wedding ceremonies were performed in backyards of mine company houses and boardinghouses. Pistols were shot into the air; delicacies from Salt Lake City Greek importing stores covered the tables made of planks on sawhorses; one or two overworked Greek women hurried about with bowls and platters; dancing and singing went on for hours, each man determined to prove his leventia. All the while American children and adults gaped into the yards. Many women came alone with tags tied to their clothing. Their future husbands had not enough money to do otherwise for them. One of the first Cretan women to come to Carbon County was left at the side of


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the tracks in a sagebrush flat thirty miles north of Helper, Utah. A stranger approached her speaking the unfamiliar Roumeliot dialect of Central Greece. He took her by wagon to a section gang farther off where the man who was to be her husband was working. Such women suffered not only from the fear of corning alone to a country whose lanWedding of Ellen Bellaros and Fotis Konakis guage they did not know, but at a boardinghouse in Sunnyside, from violating the rigid code Carbon County. The priest is Father Markos Petrakis. Photograph furnished by of their people. In the MediHelen Halimandaris and Mrs. John G. Pappas. terranean countries where a poor man's only possessions were his self-respect and his daughters' virginity, women were chaperoned with paranoid obsession.80 Women traveling alone to America were tragically burdened with the anxiety that they would be suspected forever of having questionable morals. F. G. Friedman, "The World of 'LaMiseria,' " Partisan Review (March-April, 1953), 222.

A wedding party photographed outside of a miners' boardinghouse in Castle Gate, Utah. Only five women were present. Many of these men were killed in the Castle Gate explosion of 1924. Photograph furnished by Steve Sargetakis.


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The wedding spurred more men to bring brides. Newspapers in towns took note of the weddings: "GREEK GIRLS ARRIVE Nearly [a] dozen most handsome maidens have arrived from [their] native land with some of the best young men as husbands . . . make life much more pleasant for young men." 81 Soon nuclei of young families were in every mining camp in Carbon County as well as in Salt Lake City, Ogden, and the mine, mill, and smelter towns of northern Utah. Life now changed drastically for the Greek men. The gaiety of the boardinghouses and coffeehouses gave way to serious concern for their families. In Utah another element was added to being aliens in America. The extremely nationalistic Greeks, a provincial, insular people, were set down among an equally provincial people, the Mormons. Still close to their violent, persecuted past, well along toward accomplishing their goal of "making the desert blossom as a rose," they viewed the Greeks with defensive animosity. Although all South Europeans shared the Mormons' contempt, the Slavic peoples, less conspicuous because of their coloring and less inclined to strike out and "disturb the peace," and the Italians whose common fellowship with the Irish and native Americans in the Roman Catholic church, enemies all, were a shade less repugnant than the Greeks, a large proportion of them darkly handsome Cretans, the result of the Moorish conquest of Crete when male Cretans were murdered and their women subjugated. To the Mormons the Greeks were interlopers among the "white" population; they were clannish, would not marry outsiders, and thought they were an exceptional people with the only true religion on earth. The Greeks on the other hand, thought the Mormons, a high percentage of them of Nordic strains, dull people "without salt." They called them "white headed" and "inhospitable." "They wouldn't give you a glass of water if you were choking to death." Greeks avoided certain restaurants in small towns; they had either been ignored or rudely served. The Mormons were also clannish, would not marry outsiders, and thought they were an exceptional people with the only true religion on earth. America was a paradox. The young mothers were disturbed by their rejection. Yet, they found in America a freedom they could never have known in their own country. They were free from want; they could cook meat regularly, not only on Christmas and Easter; they could dress themselves and their children in Sunday finery. 81

News Advocate, January 25, 1917.


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They were also free from the domination of their elders, particularly their husbands' families, safely back in their native country. The higher status of American women benefited them. Still they lived in nostalgia for the "old country." Each year in their communal reveries, oranges grew bigger, grapes more abundant, and flowers more profuse in their barren homeland. The new families tended to live near each other in what were soon called "Greek Towns" by the natives. In Magna the families settled first in Greek women lived in nostalgia Ragtown, then on the west side of the for the "old country," yet America town. In Helper they lived near the gave them benefits they could not Helper Grade School, in Price on Carhave had in Greece. Mrs. John Leventis and Mrs. Andrew Takis. bon Avenue, in Salt Lake City near the Photograph furnished by railyards in the vicinity of their church. Mrs. Mike Leventis. In Bingham, the more cosmopolitan of the mining camps, the families lived in Copperfield, Carr Fork, and wherever housing was available. In Ogden the great number of Greek railGreek Town mothers in Magna. From left to right, Mrs. William Mrs. Nick Klekas, and Mrs. John Klekas. Photograph furnished by Mrs. John Klekas.

Mamales,


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road workers dispersed after the completion of construction projects. A small group of businessmen remained but lived in various parts of the city. All of the houses had small gardens. The plentiful water from irrigation streams was a great satisfaction to the mothers; in their villages they had had to carry water from the village well and walk miles each day to pasture their goats and work small plots of ground that depended on rainfall. In the mining camps every family had chicken coops, rabbit hutches, a shed for washing clothes, another for coal and wood, and many, especially in Helper, domed mud ovens for baking bread. The Greek Towns were hives of activity. Almost every house had several adults attached to the family. Young men, sometimes relatives, sometimes only from the same family, lived with the young families. Besides raising her children without the help of mothers and grandmothers as was done in her village, the immigrant mother was regularly confronted with her husband's bringing home several bachelors from the mine or sheep camp. Greek hospitality required that she leave the washboard, the bread baking, or the ironing and immediately prepare a banquet for the men who were so unfortunate as to be deprived of daily Greek cooking. The mothers spent much time canning fruits, vegetables, tomato paste, and pickles to last the year. Canning, unknown in Greece because of the expense of bottles and lids and only now being introduced there, was a gift to the women. They also prepared preserved crabapples stuffed with almonds, sugared orange and grapefruit rind, and other fruits and sweets to serve guests. In America there was plenty of fruit and sugar even for the working class. The Greek people could not understand the frugal Mormon attribute of eating as cheaply as possible. Among the Greeks kisses and embraces were perfunctory rituals on greeting people, on leavetakings, namedays, and church celebrations. They were shocked to learn that Mormon children were punished by being sent to bed without food. Love and food were synonymous to the Greeks. To the Greeks a person could be sick; he could be grief stricken; but to be hungry was the worst evil to befall him. There were so many young Greeks living in boardinghouses and so many more than there was room for that many families ran boardinghouses. In accordance with Greek propriety — that no hint of scandal be attached to the women — the families lived in houses separate from the boardinghouses or in quarters apart. In mining camps such as Sunnyside running a boardinghouse was arduous work. Water was hauled in barrels from the river.


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The owners of boardinghouses raised chickens and kept flocks of lambs to provide meat for their roomers. Many Greeks left the laboring ranks at this time to raise lambs for Greek boardinghouses. Greek life was changed by the coming of brides. The great number of marriages resulted in the consecration on August 15, 1916, of a second Greek church in Utah, the Assumption.82 Like the church in Salt Lake City, the Price church was of traditional Byzantine construction in which the dome rests on a square supported by four pillars. The nave of the church is in the form of a cross. The icons, called the "Bible of the unlettered," cover the iconostasis, the altar screen. The lamps burned oil that had been blessed at the Holy Sepulchre in Jerusalem. As in the Salt Lake City Greek church, there were few seats, following Greek custom that decreed it disrespectful to sit during the three-hour service. The icons always include Christ on the right, the Virgin and Child on the left, John the Baptist in his animal

Groundbreaking ceremonies for the Price Greek Orthodox church. Photograph furnished by William S. Lines.

82 For history of Price Greek church see Fiftieth Anniversary Book of the "Assumption" Greek Orthodox Church of Price. (Price, 1966), Price church office. T h e officers of the board were President Stylian Staes, Vice-President Emmanuel Klapakis, Treasurer Emmanuel Salevourakis, and Secretary Thrasivoulos Assimakopoulos.

Consecration of the Price Greek Orthodox church, August 15,1916. The men wearing caps are members of the Hellenic Society. Photograph the Fiftieth Anniversary Book of the "Assumption" Greek O r t h o d o x C h u r c h of Price.

from


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skin, Saint George on a white horse destroying the dragon, Saint Demetrios on a brown horse spearing the Anti-Christ, the archangels Michael and Gabriel, the Last Supper above the center door (called the Royal G a t e ) , and the life of Christ in a row above these. T h e Evangelists and the Twelve Apostles are depicted about the dome. 8 3 A picture taken during the consecration of the church shows a large number of men standing outside of the church wearing military caps of the Hellenic Society. Such organizations were sanctioned by the Greek government for the purpose of keeping alive among her emigrant sons the idea of returning to Greece. Nostalgic and emotional appeals of country and family were brought to the men by Greek visitors. The first priest of the church was Father Markos Petrakis, bearded with his hair hanging to his shoulders. 84 In noting the arrival of the oldcountry priest wearing black robes, a silver cross, and tall priest's hat, the News Advocate of Price printed the hope that the priest "wrould have a steadyFather Markos Petrakis, first priest in ing influence on the Greek Carbon County. Photograph from the Fiftieth Anniversary Book of the boys." 85 "Assumption" Greek O r t h o d o x C h u r c h Special trains ran from of Price. all of the coal camps bringing the men to Price for the consecration of the church. T h e Sunnyside Italian band met them at the station and escorted the men, shouting and shooting off their guns for good luck, to the church. 83 For the significance of icons see Ernst Benz, The Eastern Orthodox Church: Its Thought and Life (Garden City, 1963), Chap. 2. 84 Unless otherwise noted, material on Carbon County is taken from Helen Zeese Papanikolas, " T h e Greeks of Carbon County," Utah Historical Quarterly, X X I I (April, 1954), 143-64. 83 A son of Father Petrakis, Harry Mark, is the author of many novels and collections of short stories.


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A Magna wedding of the early twenties. Mr. and Mrs. Chris Karpakis. The Greek midwife, Mrs. Nick Mageras, is at the far right, second row from the top. Photograph furnished by Mrs. John Klekas.

In the Price and Salt Lake City churches there was now a sprinkling of women and young babies in the congregations. Feasts on saints' days and national holidays brought several hundred people together. Dancing with hands clasped, the men sang the old songs of the war against the Turks, songs of necessary cruelty: W h e n will the sky clear, when will it be February T o take my rifle, my lovely mistress, T o come down to Amalo, to the road of Mousoure, T o make mothers sonless, and wives widows.

Weddings and baptisms were held on Sundays. Lambs were roasted on spits; goatherders from the mountain draws brought fresh goat cheese; young mothers laid out delicacies made from paper-thin sheets of dough layered with cheese or nuts and honey. Brides and grooms wore flowered wedding crowns (stefana) made of embroidered white cloth that had been ordered, along with white coated almonds, mastiha, and other Greek liquors, from the Atlantic Importing Company in New York. Before a Baptism of Georgia Hemonas in Sunnyside, Carbon County, at the goat ranch of Fotis Konakis. Musical instruments are the Cretan lyras. Photograph furnished by Helen Halimandaris and Mrs. John G. Pappas.


Greek Town, Magna, Utah. The Emmanuel Papanikolas and Nick children with Kost Papanikolas (Nichols) in the early twenties. Photograph furnished by Mrs. John Klekas.

Floor

wedding an enterprising Greek jeweler from Salt Lake City made the rounds of Carbon County's mining camps with a supply of rings and bracelets that the miners bought for their countrymen's brides. The women brought the folklore and customs of their country with them. In the Greek Towns, houses were never dark at night. Vigil lights from family icons glowed in each one.86 The women helped each other in times of illness. At first they were reluctant to call in American doctors and attempted to care for their families with folk cures. In each Greek Town there were women adept at curing the Evil Eye. At all hours of the day or night they were called upon to administer secret formulas for children taken ill suddenly, for which there was no explanation except that they had been looked upon with envy by someone who possessed the Evil Eye. Others were known for folk curing. In the Magna-Garfield-Bingham area the leading practitioner was Mrs. Nick Mageras, known as Magerou. She was also a midwife and for decades was in great demand by Greek, Italian, and Slavic women.87 In Carbon County the authority was John Diamanti, called "Uncle John" even as a young man. He not only prescribed folk cures, but was consulted to explain dreams, to predict the sex of an unborn child, and to read the shoulder blade of the Easter lamb. Peering at the bone and 80 An article on Greek folklore by the author is included in a book on U t a h folklore to be published soon by the University of U t a h Press. 87 See Helen Zeese Papanikolas, " M a g e r o u : T h e Greek Midwife," Utah Historical Quarterly, 38 (Winter, 1970), 50-60.


John Diamanti with his family and nephew Chris Jouflas (far right). The first Greek resident of Carbon County, Uncle John prescribed folk cures and explained dreams for Greek Town residents. Photograph furnished by Mrs. James J. Diamanti.

feeling its bumps and demarcations, he foretold, accurately it is said, what the coming year would bring. For special remedies the immigrants went to Alex Rizos, a druggist from the mountainous region of Epirus, Greece. For more than fifty years, first in Bingham then in Salt Lake City, Mr. Rizos mixed manjouni, a tonic made of quinine sulphate, powdered Peruvian bark, honey, nuxvomica, rhubarb herb, cinnamon, and other ingredients. He dispensed contemporary drugs, but also leeches and vizikdnti (powdered Spanish fly), that on application to the skin produced large blisters. These were twisted open, and the "uncleanness" in the body was released.


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Mr. and Mrs. Gregory Halles at the left, dispensers of everything needed for Greek ceremonial life. Mrs. Joseph Sargetakis, sister of Mrs. Halles, and a cousin are at the right. Photograph furnished by Steve Sargetakis.

With weddings, baptisms, and a few funerals weekly Sunday events, Gregory Halles, confectionery winner in the Paris Exposition of 1904 and other fairs, became a leading figure in Greek ceremonial life. Mr. Halles and his wife provided wedding crowns, ornamental candles, baptismal medals, cakes, ftlo (the paper-thin sheets of pastry important in Greek cooking), and, most essential of all, memorial wheat. Forty days after a death, commemorating the forty days that Christ walked the earth after His Crucifixion, wheat was boiled until plump; sweetened; and mixed with nuts, pomegranate seeds, parsley, Jordan almonds, and raisins. A thick coating of powdered sugar was spread over the molded wheat and decorated with silver almonds, dragees (small silver candy beads), and green fir trees, symbol of eternal life. Family and friends ate the wheat, called kolivo, as a sign of mutual forgiveness with the dead person. The soul had then finished its wanderings and was ready to meet God.

Memorial wheat for Emmanuel Papanikolas. Photograph furnished by Mrs. Lou Nichols.

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War

Returned soldiers of World War 1 in Bingham. Many ethnic groups are represented here. Charles Dimas stands next to the sailor. Photograph furnished by Mayor Peter C. Dimas, Bingham.


T

of the Greek immigrants with its perplexing folklore and customs was a curiosity to the natives. Although they regarded all aliens, and especially the newer ones — the Greeks — as far inferior to themselves, they had begun to accept them as part of the new pattern of life. Newspapers in Bingham, Magna, Price, and Helper made note of Greek Christmas and Easter celebrations, referred to the men as "the Greek boys," and did not often make a point in criminal cases of emphasizing their nationality. But with the beginning of World War I and the continuing influx of immigrants, fear of the "foreigners" grew. The words "un-American" and "unpatriotic" took the place of earlier epithets. In the eastern United States, Greeks volunteered in great numbers and some became heroes.88 The Greeks had been in the East longer and had become established. Greek aliens in the West were still laborers and few of them could read American newspapers well. In all of Utah Greeks expressed willingness to serve if they could return to Greece to fight with their own people, also on the side of the Allies.89 To serve with soldiers whose language they did not understand appalled them. Their life was still one of Greek boardinghouses, Greek labor gangs, and Greek coffeehouses. In Salt Lake City, Greek consul G. A. Papailion arrived to "organize the Greek colony in the interests of the war." 90 A month later in Bingham the "Greeks of camp" brought a company of soldiers from Fort Douglas for a "patriotic Greek pageant" that raised $700.00 for the war. 91 In Winter Quarters Greek miners bought $9,000 worth of Liberty Bonds at 92 All through a ra Hy _ four Greeks subscribed to a thousand dollars each. Carbon County, Greek miners held "Get Out The Coal" rallies. The majority though were reluctant to enter the United States Army for three reasons. They believed that as aliens they were not required to serve. (In Bingham the exemption of aliens from army service brought fears that "the camp would be left in the hands of the foreigners." 93 ) They believed that the Greeks were given higher quotas to fill. And, they felt that Greek nationalism was again at stake. In Carbon County this reluctance to join the army was the beginning of years of ill feeling and violence against the Greeks. HE BUSY LIFE

88 Louis Adamic, A Nation of Nations (New York, 1944), 2 8 0 ; Saloutos, Greeks in the United States, C h a p . 8. 89 Bingham Bulletin, M a y 3 1 , 1 9 1 8 ; News Advocate, April 12,1917. 90 Bingham Bulletin, M a y 10, 1918. 91 Ibid., June 7, 1918. 92 News Advocate, July 11, 1918. 93 Standard, August 9, 1917.


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At their March Independence Day celebration in Price, the Greeks followed patriotic speeches relating the Greek struggle against the Turks with expressions of loyalty to the United States. In late July the draft call was sent to 801 men, of whom 221 were Greeks. Only forty of the Greeks were citizens or had taken out first naturalization papers. Rumors began that the Greeks were balking at the size of their quota. The August 9 issue of the News Advocate said, "First indications were that a large number of Greeks were willing to enlist even if they could not be forced to do so. Later indications are that most will claim exemptions." Succeeding issues of the two Price newspapers carried lists of five to ten Greeks who had enlisted, but a far larger one of those who had asked for exemption because of their alien status. On August 16, an article by Tom Avgikos, a young Greek businessman in Helper who later served in France, appeared in the News Advocate. Entitled "Why The Greeks Don't Volunteer," the author extolled Greek bravery throughout history and said Greeks would not commit themselves until they were told what would happen after the war to the Greek provinces "now under the yoke of the Turks, English, and Italians. Will the Greeks take part in war to help big nations steal Greek lands? The allies must make themselves clear first. Greeks hate Kaiser but can't fight him for national reasons." Greek nationalism was incomprehensible to the Americans. They saw no reason for Greeks in America to be concerned with the Greek islands, Macedonia, and Thrace that had not been returned to Greece following the Revolution of 1821 and the Balkan Wars. That Greek immigrants feared the war would again result in powerful nations cutting up portions of Greece under the guise of being her protectors, appeared like subterfuge to the Americans. Immigrants were told often enough in print to leave their love of country, customs, and language at Ellis Island. By winter anger against the Greeks had grown dangerously. Newspapers took part in the denunciations. Fathers and mothers who are sending their American boys to fight in Italy if need be and for the safety of both Greeks and Italians and all other races are getting more and more incensed at the whelps who think nothing of getting American dollars under the American flag but who would not turn a hand over to save that flag from being dragged in the dirt by the Kaiser's bloody cutthroats. Some of the worst specimens of this sort are going to get some early day western treatment if they do not wake up to their duty soon. . . . Feeling against such dirty low-down grafters is running high in many towns in Utah.


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As hysteria against Germany mounted, the Greeks began enlisting, but their initial reluctance was not forgotten. Newspapers specifically mentioned a Greek or Italian's nationality when reporting a crime. Coffeehouses drew concentrated suspicion. In Carbon County the cost of their licenses was increased to $200.00 a year. Proprietors threatened to close their businesses; the "Greek boys in camps" complained that the coffeehouses were the only places to pass the evening; Stylian Staes, their advisor, asked the licensing board to define a coffeehouse.94 In Salt Lake City in a fight between four Greeks and four Americans, a Greek killed Bruce Dempsey, brother of Jack Dempsey, the fighter.95 The murderer was described as having reddish hair and as being a Greek. Red hair being uncommon among Greeks, he was easily identified and captured in a Layton farmhouse by a posse headed by a Greek detective, William Cayias. The Salt Lake Telegram reported the crime and the capture of the Greek in inflammatory accounts and added what the Deseret News and the Salt Lake Tribune called an invitation to a lynching: Several committees of citizens mingled through crowds on Main Street early this afternoon and passed the word that a mass meeting would be held in front of the postoffice at 8 o'clock to avenge the brutal murder Monday night of little Bruce Dempsey. When it became known on the street that the alleged murderer of the boy was in custody there was a strong wave of sentiment to lynch the slayer. It is believed this will be the object of the vigilance committee when it meets tomorrow night.

The following evening several hundred men gathered and listened to speakers demand a lynching. The entire force of city police and of prison guards arrived where "Sergeant Pierce's men cleared the sidewalk by honeyed persuasion, tempered with just enough display of determination to convince the crowd that stronger measures might be resorted to if necessary." 96 The Greek version of the killing differs: The fight began over attentions paid by the Greek to Bruce Dempsey's sister. Greek Town residents joined the search for the killer, but when talk of lynching went through the city, they armed themselves and appeared at the gathering with their own form of "honeyed persuasion." Two Greek servicemen at Fort Douglas turned a cannon to face the city and threatened to bombard it if their countryman were lynched. 94

News Advocate, May 10, 1917. Salt Lake Tribune, Deseret News, and Salt Lake Telegram "Salt Lake Tribune, June 28, 1917. 95

for J u n e 26, 27, 28, 1917.


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In Price just before the Armistice, a Greek was brought to court to face charges of contributing to the delinquency of a minor. He had given a girl, just under age, a ride in his car and neighbors had seen him "flirting" with her. A crowd gathered outside of the Price courthouse where the Greek had been taken by a posse. A clamor began to lynch him. Greeks of Price sent calls to their countrymen in all the coal camps. P.O. Silvagni rallied the Italians saying, "If it's a Greek this time, it'll be an Italian next." The streets of Price swarmed with gun- and knifecarrying Greeks and Italians. A small army of wild-eyed Cretans rushed in from Castle Gate. The crowd quickly dispersed. The traditional antagonism between Greeks and Italians, the roots of which reach back to the sack of the Greek Holy City Constantinople (Istanbul) by the Fourth Crusade in 1204 and to the long Venetian rule of Greece, dissolved in times of danger. They stood united against mutual enemies. During the war Greek men kept Liberty Bonds in their pockets to show in times of danger. A Greek youth from Helper, Utah, passing through a small town in Idaho found himself eyed by the natives. That night as he watched a newsreel in a theater, war scenes flashed on. He was attacked by the audience and taken out to be hung. His Liberty Bonds saved him. The war ended with 350,000 American casualties, 548,000 United States residents dead from the influenza epidemic of 1918, an enormous shortage of food and materials, and "aliens who had not done their part." The four years of war in Europe had delayed return to Greece for many men. The added years in America had begun to dim their goal of repatriation. Life in America no longer had an air of temporary interlude. Greeks now flocked for citizenship papers only to be denied them. For many years those who had claimed exemption because of alien status had their applications rejected for five years. American citizenship had now become important to the Greeks whose native land would never recognize them as citizens of any other country.


Leaving the Labor Ranks

The significant entrance into business by Greeks occurred in the early twenties. The Magna Motor Company was owned by Milt and Harry Stamoulis. Mrs. Pete Lovrich and her husband (right) standing by their new car. Photograph from the M a g n a Times, Edith Ridge, editor.

A,

the American Legion led a campaign against the South Europeans in the country. Returned immigrant soldiers, some .FTER T H E WAR,


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naturalized before entering the army and others granted citizenship for their service, found themselves sitting with other Legionnaires, hearing national leaders denounce Greeks and Italians and demand a compulsory education program for all aliens. The Legion singled out the Greeks for their backwardness: clinging to their native language; establishing Greek schools for their children; and reading Greek newspapers in coffeehouses. The money the Greeks, as well as other Balkan and Mediterranean people, sent to their families, was a source of anger to the native Americans. This money was an important propaganda means used against the Greeks in the Bingham Strike of 1912, in the 1914 Ludlow Massacre in Colorado, during the war years, later in the Carbon County Strike of 1922, and the Ku Klux Klan attacks of 1924. The money sent to Greece multiplied as immigration increased, reaching a peak in 1921. In that year the money sent to Greece by her emigrant sons in the United States totaled $121 million. This changed Greece's extremely unfavorable balance of trade, strengthened the Greek drachma, and enabled entire districts of peasants to free themselves from crippling mortgages. The standard of living was raised dramatically. Not only could necessities be bought, but also a few luxuries. Greek history acknowledges this enormous debt to the United States.97 The young Greeks, older now and with money saved, began leaving the mines and smelters to become store owners and sheepmen. Laundries, restaurants, hotels, grocery stores, hayfeed-coal-and-ice businesses were established at a rapid rate. Among the first businessmen in the Salt Lake area were Tom Politz, George Castles, Alex Rizos, Nicholas P. Stathakos, George Money sent to Greece by her emigrant sons and Louis Strike, and Andrew and greatly raised the standard of living there. George Floor. Early businessmen in Mother, brother, niece, and nephews of Mrs. Joseph Sargetakis. Ogden were Gus J. Cutrubus, George Photograph furnished by Steve Sargetakis. Dokas, Sam Vetas, and Andrew BatesStavrianos, Balkans Since 1453, 481.


Greek Land

James Skedros in the Rizos Drug Store, Salt Lake City. furnished by Mrs. James Skedros.

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Photograph

tas. Among the first Greek businessmen in Bingham were Peter Pitchios, Anast Chipian, Charles Demas, James Jimas, John and Steve Leventis, George Adondakis, Christ Pappasoteriou (Soteriou), Tom Praggastis, and Alex Pistolas. In Magna businessmen were Gus and Charles Paulos; Emmanuel, William, and George Papanikolas; Milt, Harry, and John Stamoulis; Chris Tryfon; Pete and Chris Athas; Kost Papanikolas; Con Chlepas; and Ernest Mantes. In Helper early Greek businessmen were James Galanis, the Gegonas brothers, Tony Michelog, Tom Avgikos, John Diamanti, Gust Pappas, Pete Jouflas, James Papacosta, Gus Tsangaris, John Gerendas, George Zeese, Theros Sargetis, and the Lenderis brothers. In Price businessmen were Gus Platis, Stylian Staes, Nick Karras, Nick Michelog, Harry Dragatis, and the Salevourakis and Georgides brothers. In Black Hawk Steve Diumenti, in Spring Canyon George Zoumadakis, and in Logan George Lamb were in business. Throughout the state Greeks were converting their savings into property and buildings. The contract for the water pipeline through Price Canyon and into Helper was awarded to Stylian Staes and George


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Zeese.98 This was the first time in Utah that Greek immigrants were the employers of a large labor gang rather than part of it. Many Greeks became sheepmen and contributed greatly to the economy of the state. They came mostly from Roumeli, the mountainous province in Central Greece. A few were from the Island of Crete. Supplying meat for Greek boardinghouses was their starting point. The butchering of carcasses was known to all immigrants. Every village family raised a few lambs or kids to provide wool, meat on holidays, and milk for cheese making. To supply crowded boardinghouses with meat proved to be hard work, but not an unfamiliar trade. The men raised young lambs and slaughtered them before they became yearlings. In the Bingham area John Condas, John Louras, and John Leventis raised their lambs on the road to Lead Mine above Copperton. The three formed the Condas Slaughterhouse Company and held lucrative contracts with Bingham boardinghouses. In the Scofield-Clear Creek area, George Metos and John Cavalas supplied both meat and bakery goods to boardinghouses for miners working in the Pleasant Valley coal mines. They kept between four to six hundred lambs for this purpose. In Helper, the railroad terminal for the thirty mines in Carbon County, John and Nick Diamanti, Pete, John, and Ted Jouflas, Gust and Angelo Pappas were all involved in the business to provide meat for boardinghouses. They raised small flocks of lambs and were not primarily concerned with breeding ewes. The flocks were kept on nearby farms. On farms beyond Price, Angelo Mahleras, Sam Sampino, James Giannopulos, Nick Malkogiannis, and Angelo Theos raised their lambs. James Koulouris raised lambs in Black Hawk for his own boardinghouse. After three years, he moved to Helper where he and his brotherin-law, John Papoulas, raised lambs on a farm at Blue Cut, between Helper and Price. They also kept goats and made feta cheese from the milk. A few men in Magna principally John Kochonis and Pete Melos, who had reputations as excellent butchers, also raised and provided lambs for boardinghouses and for the Greek population. Flocks in Magna were small; when Greek laborers left the mill and smelter, some butchers added ice, coal, feed, and grocery items to their diminished meat business. Supplying meat to mining town boardinghouses had its dangers. Although some of the men were able to sign contracts with mine com98

Sun (Price), August 1,1919.


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panies and could conduct business unchallenged, others had to confront entrenched mine company store owners. All competition with company stores was discouraged, often through vandalism. The higher prices of the company stores were not questioned by mine and mill officials. Miners were cautioned and often threatened with loss of their jobs if they bought elsewhere. At times scrip was issued to prevent clandestine buying. The demand to abolish scrip was made in every strike. Town officials upheld the unwritten law of company store supremacy. Harry Mahleras was stopped on the outskirts of the coal camp, Hiawatha, by the town marshal who refused him entrance. At gunpoint Mahleras forced the marshal out of the way. He delivered his meat that day and continued to deliver it with his gun on the wagon seat. Many assault charges on court calendars of this period were the outcome of Greeks attempting to deliver meat to "restricted" areas. By the end of the first world war and the beginning of the 1920's, the Greeks became sheepmen in the complete sense of raising, breeding, and marketing their lambs and wool. John Condas bought out his partners and continued to sell lambs to Bingham residents until the abortive strike and labor troubles of 1917 and 1918. This period of labor unrest greatly depleted the Greek mining population, already disillusioned by the long, unsuccessful strike five years earlier. Condas was left with a large flock of lambs, no longer yearlings, but unsaleable breeding ewes — a financial failure. With his market gone, he bought rams and became a full-fledged sheepman. The decline in the number of Greek boardinghouses by the early twenties when the immigrants were rapidly leaving the mines, mills, and smelters to enter business brought less demand for the wholesale buying of meat. Failure in other business enterprises turned many men to sheep, to what they knew best. Ironically they returned to the very life they had left Greece to avoid; yet they were well suited by temperament for it. Some had tried other businesses in conjunction with their meat supply ventures: restaurants, candy stores, grocery stores, and real estate. A Christmas Eve fire destroyed the Ideal Meat Market in Helper owned by John Diamanti, James Koulouris, and Pete Jouflas. To recoup their losses, they concentrated on breeding and marketing sheep. Of the sheepmen only John Condas lived in Bingham. He held a lifetime franchise of grazing rights on the Oquirrh Mountains. From the winter desert grounds in Skull Valley, the sheep were trailed to Copperton and Lead Mine for lambing. In 1921 and 1922 a total of eight


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hundred sheep were killed by the arsenic wastes from Utah Copper operations. In 1924 Condas moved to the Park City junction where he acquired grazing land under the Homestead Act. George Metos, John Cavalas, George and Tom Telonas, Gus Mavroandreas, Gus Nikolodemos (known as Gus Mormon because he had been an interpreter in the Castle Gate mines "among the Mormons"), and the brothers Andreas, John, and Christ Maniotis lived in Scofield. George Metos did not drive his sheep to winter grounds. He raised hay on a farm in Fish Creek and fed his sheep throughout the winter. When the Scofield Dam was built, his farm was condemned and his sheep dwindled in number. Angelos Theos, John Papoulas, and the three Pappathanasiou brothers Nick, Gust, and Pete, drove their sheep to summer pasture in the Uintah Mountains and lived in Vernal. Theros Sargetis lived in Altonah. The sheepmen of Helper and Price kept their sheep in the Scofield country during the summer and moved them to winter grounds in the desert country around Castle Dale, Centerfield near Green River, and as far as Woodside in the vicinity of Grand Junction, Colorado. Greek sheepmen had little trouble with each other. They respected each others' grazing and water rights. The Greeks and the French also had good relations with each other. There was one long feud between a Greek sheepman and a French family; everyone rode the range with high-powered rifles. With native Americans, however, water, grazing rights, and quarrels over stray sheep were a constant source of trouble. Carbon County district court records of the early 1920's list many trespassing cases. The Maniotis brothers of Scofield, who had been involved in many altercations (in one fight, one brother lost an eye), later moved to Craig, Colorado, where American sheepmen drove 150 of their sheep over a cliff. In Scofield a bitter feud between the Telonas brothers and a Scandinavian immigrant family lasted for years. An old-time sheepman said: "Confidentially, we all stole sheep from each other, Greeks, Frenchmen, Americans — a few here, a few there." By the middle 1920's many Greek sheepmen left Utah for Colorado. The size of their flocks was restricted by the lack of land in Utah. The Scofield mountains were mostly forest reserves; little land in this area was privately owned. Around Craig and Grand Junction, Colorado, there was rich grazing land, privately owned and available for leasing. Of the men who left Utah, Angelo Theos and John Papoulas rose to own substantial bands of sheep. Many sheepmen left America during this time and returned to Greece where they married and raised families.


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Ranks

The men who remained in Utah but drove their sheep to the Colorado mountains for summer grazing were reluctant to leave because of the Greek Orthodox church in Price. Neither Craig nor Grand Junction had Greek churches. Price and Helper were the center of Greek life in the sheepv country. There children attended Greek schools, fraternal lodges abounded, and old-country friends were many. In the summer families spent the three months "at sheep." Mothers cooked for crowds of men. Patches of hay were grown and the sons helped with the cutting. They also took supplies to sheep camps, drove to town for food, and, when older, were expected to take their turns as sheepherders. Girls helped their mothers with the monumental task of canning enough fruits and vegetables to last the family and the sheepherders until the next canning season. The youngest daughters bottle fed the "bum" lambs—lambs rejected by their mothers, orphaned, or the weaker of twins. Mothers rolled out great numbers of paper-thin sheets of dough which were spread out to dry on clean sheets covering beds, bunks, tables, and planks on saw horses. These were stacked and stored between newspapers. When the women left with their children for school, the men mixed Greek feta cheese with eggs and butter, spread the mixture between layers of the filo pastry, and baked it — a delicacy called pita. Each sheep camp was the domain of the sheepherder who spent the entire summer there, moving from place to place as the grass was eat•j-,

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Mr. and Mrs. James Koulouris,

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Leona Papoulas, Gus Kaddis, as ilr lo t ever G eek "family?*?'*? JP : f ! . l ! had other adults living with them. Photograph furnished by Penelope Koulouris.


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Almost all of the sheepherders were Greeks. A few were native Americans and Mexicans. Sometimes the owner of the outfit, the "boss," sent tickets to relatives and fellow villagers in Greece in return for a specified amount of work. One Greek sheepherder, who had entered the country illegally, worked ten years without once leaving the sheep camp. The loyalty to the boss was deep and lifelong. A ninety-year-old sheepherder said of his boss: I came to Castle Gate in 1913 and worked in the mines until I hurt my leg. John Papoulas gave me a job as a sheepherder. I worked for him for many years and then I got sick. I could only do the work of an ordinary man. So I hired out to an American and stayed with him for two years. I got better and returned to the boss.

Nick Linardos at the age of ninety, a hero of the Balkan War of 1912, a sheepherder in Utah and Colorado for fifty-five years. Photograph furnished by George Theodore.

The boss knew his men well. He knew there were as many kinds of men as there were sheep camps. Some men seldom lost a sheep; others lost them not only in blizzards, but on fine summer days. Some sheep showed signs of untended injuries; others were cradled as if they were babies. Some sheepherders had superficial concern for their sheep and dogs; some mourned the death of a lamb and grieved a lifetime for a dead sheep dog. The boss refused to eat at certain camps. Sheepherders depended on folk cures they brought with them from Greece. If they became sick, they could not leave the sheep for medical help. For infections they used a bandage made of clean sheep tufts dipped in the film that formed on top of goatcheese liquid. For colds they


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drank hot wine and spices. Garlic was chewed for every ache and pain. Each sheepherder had favorite cures he used for himself and for his sheep. Many sheepherders took part of their wages in sheep and with a modest number went into business for themselves. This took many years of contract labor. Greek men who found work as sheepherders in isolated Mormon communities became sheepmen there, married Mormon women, and lost Greek ties. Their obituaries stir vague memories among their countrymen. Lambing, shearing, and marketing were the times of greatest activity for the sheep families. Shearing was done by traveling bands of Mexican shearers who worked their way from Mexico to Montana. When electric shears took the place of hand scissors, the Greek sheepmen accepted them with trepidation. It was unnatural, a process that nicked the skin and often made deep cuts that led to infections. Greek men formed wool pools and sold to brokers, most often to Warren Snow who represented Boston manufacturers. In the fall the lambs were brought to the Price railyards for marketing. The livestock freights stopped at Craig, Colorado, at Denver, Kansas City, and Chicago. Individual sheepmen who had a great number of lambs traveled with them to market. Those with smaller numbers sold to sheep brokers. Stylian Staes, Gus Boulos, and Gus Mormon (Nikolodemos) were among the Greek sheep brokers of the 1920's. Sheepmen bought their supplies twice a year in great bulk, at lambing and at marketing. They paid their bills after the lambs and wool were sold. After a brief recession, lambs reached a high of $18.00 a head; wool was also selling at profitable prices. Of all Greeks the sheepmen were then the most prosperous.


The Carbon County Strike of 1922

John Tenas (Htenakis), Greek striker killed in Helper. Photograph furnished by the United Mine Workers, Price, and Mayor Chris Jouflas, Helper.


T

of Greek businessmen was unsettling to native Americans. T h e Greeks, to them, American citizens though they now were, had stepped out of their proper place — labor. Little distinction was m a d e between these frugal, aggressive businessmen and the group of Greeks, despised by their countrymen, the gamblers and panderers. A congressman from Idaho said: "If there is not stringent restriction on Greek immigration to the United States, it is predicted by well-known authorities that in five years the Greeks will have complete monopoly of our lives." 99 T h e hostilities of the war years had not abated. Response to the compulsory education program for aliens was weak. I n the mill, mine, and smelter towns of northern Utah, Americanization classes were poorly attended. T h e Price News Advocate read " A L I E N S L A U G H A T R E G I S T R A T I O N Only 35 registered and agreed to pay $10 fee, mostly HE

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'Jap.' " 10° Flaunting of the prohibition law was widespread among all immigrants and natives. In Bingham a bootlegging ring operated for years until a federal grand jury indicted "about 40 of the citizenry including people prominent in local circles." 101 In Carbon County the court records justified the saying "All the Italians bootlegged and half the Greeks." Cars with concealed bootleg liquor made regular trips through the high, dangerously curved Price Canyon to Salt Lake City markets. T h e Greeks and other immigrants could not take the law seriously. Sheriffs were intimidated. "Sheriff Corless warned not to destroy any more booze or may come in contact with T . N . T . " 102 And, "Helper dry agents [Agents Fuller and Gerber who got a percentage for each conviction] become unpopular among foreign element and forced to walk from Helper to Castle Gate [5 miles]." 103 While Greeks in other parts of the state maintained a wary relationship with native Americans, the Greeks in Carbon County were stung repeatedly by American Legion and newspaper attacks. Their asking for army exemption during the war, their refusal to attend Americanization classes, their sending large amounts of money to Greece, and their bootleg and assault charges were all gathered in the word " M E N A C E . " 99

J. Campbell Bruce, The Golden Door (New York, 1954), 46. News Advocate, November 30, 1922. 101 Bingham Bulletin, M a y 3, 1928. 102 Ibid., August 9, 1918. 103 News Advocate, April 27, 1922. 100


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A Bingham raid for bootleg whiskey in the twenties. Photograph from the Magna Times, Edith Ridge, editor.

The attacks made the Greeks even more belligerent, and they retreated deeper into Greek exclusiveness. Stylian Staes, Greek vice consul for Utah, Idaho, Nevada, and Wyoming, rebuked Greeks gathered in Salt Lake City to hear the president of the University of Athens Alumni Association. Still hopeful that their emigrant sons would return to Greece, Greek visitors continued touring America and pleading that the customs and traditions of the mother country not be forgotten. Staes reminded the gathering that they were living and thriving in America; that it was their country now; and that for their own good they should learn its laws, language, and ways. However, he spoke to an audience that considered themselves forever unacceptable to the Americans and unaccepting of them. To protect themselves the Greeks shored up their Greekness. In the spring of 1922 the Greek miners of Carbon County joined the national coal strike. Their aim was not the usual banner of the unionists — better working conditions and higher pay. Their reason was, as in the Bingham Strike, an emotional one — the insult to their self-respect. They found they were being cheated on the coal-weighing machines. All Greeks, businessmen and strikers, became in the propaganda of the mine operators "un-American" and "alien." The Wyoming Labor Journal, organ for the United Mine Workers, accused the coal operators of inciting prejudice against Greek businessmen to gain the support of


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American businessmen's organizations, who were alarmed at this new competition.104 At the end of April, a crowd of strikers and company guards met a train coming into Scofield; strikebreakers were rumored on board. Although workers were not on the train, the guards and strikers did not disperse, but began firing at each other. A guard, Sam Dorrity, was shot in the leg; a Greek striker was shot in the arm; and another was wounded in the chest. A rumor spread through the county that a Greek, George Manousos, would be charged with Dorrity's assault. Strikers were forced out of company houses and formed tent colonies. Governor Charles Mabey made a hurried trip into the county and promised armed aid against the strikers. Newspapers and the public supported a mine company spokesman who said, "These men [the strikers] will never get back on the payroll of Carbon County." The Scofield incident calmed both sides outwardly although the miners remained on strike. For two weeks tension pervaded the mining camps. Then news burst that John Tenas (Htenakis), a young Greek striker, had been killed in a Helper orchard. Deputy Sheriff R. T. Young, who fired the fatal shot, was treated for a flesh wound. He had narrowly escaped assault by a group of strikers earlier and had been escorted out of town by Sheriff T. F. Kelter. Tenas's companion had run from the orchard crying out that Tenas was unarmed and had been shot in the back. Italian farmers who had witnessed the shooting testified that Tenas was running away from Young when he was fired upon and that the sheriff then turned the gun on himself and inflicted the flesh wound in his leg. A mine company doctor reported, after examining the body, that Tenas had been shot in the front of his body; a Helper doctor said his examination revealed that Tenas was shot in the back.105 The Greeks of the county rose up at the killing. The casket was escorted to the church and graveyard by flag bearers holding the Greek and American flags. The Price band playing a solemn march, and seven hundred black-dressed Greeks holding small blue and white Greek flags followed. The News Advocate reported that the Greek flag was held high and that the American flag was dragged in the dust. The Sun did not mention this, and Greeks who were among the mourners denied it. The 104 105

Wyoming Labor Journal, J u n e 16, 1922. News Advocate, May 25, 1922.


The funeral of John Tenas (Htenakis), Greek striker killed in Helper by Deputy Sheriff R. T. Young, May 14,1922. Photograph furnished by the United Mine Workers, Price, and Mayor Chris Jouflas, Helper.

newspapers spoke of Tenas as "having attempted to murder R. T. Young," whose family was described as "oldtimers of Price." On May 25, the News Advocate reported that a cousin of Tenas had filed a first degree murder charge against Young, and on June 9, that the gun Tenas was alleged to have had could not be found. The Wyoming Labor Journal said: Advices from U t a h are that the . . . gun men are . . . committing criminal acts and charging it to the miners a n d ; if they [the miners] offer to defend themselves they are shot down in cold blood. . . . H o w long, O Lord, how long before the people of this land will rise u p in righteous w r a t h and say to these souless corporations "You shall not do this thing." . . . O h , for another Lincoln to rise u p in w r a t h and free the industrial slave. 106

In the camps throughout the county, Greeks were caught and fined for carrying guns and attempting to intimidate nonstrikers from reaching the mines. The Hiawatha and Sunnyside stages were stopped regularly by strikers and searched for guns. In the hills near Kenilworth a band of 150 men, "mostly foreigners," were accused of firing on mine properties. The United Mine Union officials and Sam A. King, Salt Lake attorney 106

Wyoming Labor Journal, May 19, 1922.


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who represented Greeks in Carbon County in both small and large legal matters and was greatly respected and trusted by them, denied this. William Houston of the United Mine Workers said the shooting was done by mine guards "to frighten the governor into sending the militia into Carbon County." 107 On June 13, the Sunnyside Italian band led a parade of four hundred miners to a lot near the Denver and Rio Grande Western depot in Price. After O. R. Ramsey, a national organizer, opened the meeting, the miners sang the "Battle Cry of Union." Sam King warned the men against violence. "Let the coal companies trample on the laws of the land every minute of the day," he said, "yet all you men must stand strictly within the law or be condemned by the public of this state, and without the support of public opinion, no strike can be won." He then suggested a compromise to present to the mine operators: If the mine guards were removed, and if there would be no discrimination for strike activity, the miners would return to work. The secretary of the Wyoming Miners Union, James Morgan, convinced the men to stay out to help win the, national strike.108 The Federal Council of Religious Bodies asked President Warren Harding to settle the strike.109 The suffering of women and children in tent colonies was given wide publicity. Some strikers in Carbon County moved their families into nearby towns and were chastized by the secretary of the Wyoming Miners Union for deserting "the protesting tent life." 110 On June 14, Governor Mabey announced that National Guard units in Salt Lake City and Ogden were ready to proceed to Carbon County. Machine guns and other equipment had already been sent there. Two days later the troops went in to occupy the coal fields.111 On the same day, strikers trying to stop a train on its way to Spring Canyon killed Deputy Sheriff Arthur P. Webb of Standardville and wounded H. E. Lewis, general manager of the Standard Coal Company. The train was being driven by Superintendent C. I. Vaughn of the Utah Railway Company; the train crew at Castle Gate had refused to handle it. A wounded Greek striker, Andre Vulis (Andreas Zulis), was arrested. Vaughn and Lewis said the shooting was started by the strikers 107

Salt Lake Tribune, June 3, 1922. Ibid., June 13, 1922; Sun, June 16, 1922. 109 Salt Lake Telegram, June 13, 1922. 110 Sun, June 16, 1922. 111 Salt Lake Telegram, June 14, 1922. 108


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who were on either side of the tracks in the narrow canyon. Sam King gave the strikers' version: The pickets insist that when the train left the tunnel portal, near which the shooting occurred, they acted in their usual manner, a number approaching the train on the track and in the open. They say that firing at once started from the train, and that the Greek was shot at that time. Some of the strikers made for cover; some remained in the open, and some returned the fire. . . . They insist that the train carried both guards and strike breakers and that judging by the number of shots fired from the train, the strikebreakers must have been armed. 112

The following day the National Guard commander, Major Elmer Johnson, ordered patrols on Helper's streets, roads, and at the railroad station. All vehicles and persons at the freight depot were ordered searched and "none but American citizens allowed to leave without proper authority." Miners were taken from their tent colony by guards, "lined up in a field where Major Johnson told them the meaning of martial law and that they must give up their arms. The women and children of the miners followed them. The major's speech was interpreted by Peter Karikaris, a leader among foreign miners." 113 Andreas Zulis, the wounded Greek miner, had disappeared while under custody, and the militia rampaged through the town and tent colony in search of him. Greek stores and pool halls were closed. At the Liberty Pool Hall in Spring Canyon fifteen men entered, all but one with masks or blackened faces, and drove nine Greeks at gun point down the canyon, warning them not to return. Fifty other men were waiting outside of the pool hall in support of the masked men. 114 Sam King condemned the mob and said: "Upon my arrival in Price a week ago to try a murder case, a deputy sheriff informed me in the very courthouse that it would not be long before every foreigner on strike would be driven out of the county and there would be no place in the county for their sympathizers, including their attorney." 115

Two days later troops raided all pool halls and coffeehouses in Helper searching for guns. Fourteen Greeks and one Italian were arrested for the murder of Webb on H. E. Lewis's identification. Sam King attempted to have the trials moved to another county because of the intense feeling against the Greeks. His request for change of venue argued that the people of the county were already prejudiced against the men through the 112

Salt Lake Tribune, June 15, 1922. Ibid., June 16, 1922. ™Ibid. ™Ibid. 113


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biased newspaper coverage of the killing. He quoted from The Sun: "Strikers kill Webb. Strikers fire into moving train." Which left, he said, no question in the readers' minds as to the men's guilt. The Sun reported: " . . . feeling high in Spring Canyon with a bunch of red-blooded citizens out to clean up on the disturbers." The Sun argued that the residents of the county were not bloodthirsty, as King implied, but only desirous of justice. County Attorney Dalton produced affidavits from seven hundred citizens, "all disinterested," to repudiate King's accusation of prejudice. The change of venue was denied and the trials began. George Manousos was tried first for the assault on Sam Dorrity and was Sam A. King, attorney for Greek strikers accused of murder in the sentenced to twenty years. After a long, Carbon County Strike of 1922. bitter trial, Pete Kukis, the first dePhotograph from the Utah State Historial Society. fendant in the Webb murder trial, who had a wife and child in Greece, was sentenced to life imprisonment. Next Mike Zulakis was sentenced to ten years. King still sought to move the trials to another district and his request was finally granted. The case was transferred to Castle Dale, an isolated Mormon community farther south in the eastern Utah desert. The trial was a sensation for the inhabitants to whom the Mediterreaneans were a novelty and the streams of cars bringing people from Carbon County an unusual activity. There Pagialakis was sentenced to ten years. Throughout the case, County Attorney Dalton's prosecutions were based on the men being undesirable immigrants who negated American institutions by joining strikes. He castigated the men for not serving in the world war. These two facts made it certain that none of the men would escape imprisonment. "A vicious element," The Sun called the Greeks, "unfit for citizenship . . . must America be a haven for foreign born, criminally inclined persons?" In the same issue Greek consul Stylian Staes' arrest was noted


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for "going to Kenilworth with W. H. Bennet, well known throughout the local coal camps as an agitator. . . . Efforts to secure his release on the ground of the privileges of his position as Greek consul availed Staes little as far as the arresting guardsmen were concerned." 116 In the following weekly issue, The Sun carried the headline: "UTAH'S STRIKING MINERS ARE VICTIMS O F DELUSION IMPOSED BY OTHERS." The miners were called foolish for listening to "transient and designing strikemakers." The excellence of the mining camps, their "nice" living conditions, their "proper wages" were extolled. An editorial in the News Advocate blamed the citizens of the United States for not demanding immigration laws to keep out undesirables, laws that would place the "burden of proof on the alien who is a menace so that he can be deported easily and quickly," and for not demanding Americanization schools where aliens would be compelled to learn the language of the country. Of the 3,000 Greeks in the county, only 100 of t h e m are married. . . . T h e aliens claim they are too tired to go to school in the evening. T h e y should have t h o u g h t of that before coming over. . . . T h e local Greek priest has been in America twelve years a n d can not speak or u n d e r s t a n d a word of English. . . . If he doesn't w a n t to learn the American language so that he can converse with local people, he should go back to w h e r e Greek is the national language. 1 1 7

The trials were moved to Salt Lake City where they dragged on for more than a year with many delays and appeals. Two of the men were given indeterminate sentences, three were acquitted, and the trial news dropped from the newspapers. The first degree murder trial of Sheriff Young had been postponed several times and then dismissed.118 The Greeks bitterly compared the long, difficult trials of their countrymen with the quick exoneration of Young. To them the imprisoned men were condemned because they were Greek. George Zoumadakis who was involved in the strike says : T e n a s was shot in the back. T h e news spread like fire a n d you know us Cretans, h o w easy we b u r n . We gathered from all the camps with guns and knives, Italians a n d Austrians too. O n Tuesday T e n a s was buried. It's true w h a t the papers said. A few hot heads tried to d r a g a n d burn the American flag a n d the rest of us h a d to fight them, not only for the respect of a flag, but we knew we'd be in for great trouble. 116

Sun, June 30, 1922. News Advocate, July 13, 1922. 118 "Criminal Register, Book No. 2" (Price Courthouse), Case No. 515, p. 39 June 8 1922* "Justice Court, Price City Court" (Price Courthouse), pp. 129, 260, 263. ' 117


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The next day we found the whole county banded against us. We had to move about in large groups as we did in the first years in this country. Those of us who had businesses with the least connection with the mines had papers nailed on our doors forbidding any miner to enter on penalty of losing his job and being blacklisted in all the mines of the West. Two patriots and I had a large building in Spring Canyon. We'd built it ourselves at a cost of $7,000 with a 99-year lease from the mine company. We had a coffeehouse, grocery and clothing store there, an inventory of $18,000. The company closed our building. Our food was spoiling, and a condition for the leasing was that there would be no interruption of service. The man from the New Peerless mine offered us $1800 for our inventory. Our backs to the wall, we took it. A few weeks later a train load of scabs, scum picked up on Salt Lake's Second South, were on a train coming up the canyon to the Standard Mine. Our men riddled the train with bullets, and the scabs fired back. One of our boys, Andreas Zulis (Zulakis) had his arm hanging" by a shred. Two patriots took him to a doctor in Helper who sewed him up. He had lost a lot of blood. The doctor wouldn't let Zulis leave. It was against the law, he said. Zulis fainted every time we tried to move him. Sheriff Cook took him to the coffeehouse of John Buzis and left him in his custody while he went for help. Two of us got some money together and went to Spiros Vlamakis who had a car. We told him, "Spiro, Zulis is in danger. Take this money and get him to Mexico." Spiros put him in the car. Zulis was weak and in pain, but Spiros got him to Mexico. From there he went to Greece eventually. He knew he'd rot in jail or maybe be hanged if he ever crossed the border. When Cook came back and found Zulis gone, John Buzis was taken to jail. The militia went wild, ransacking the tents and shacks some miners had moved into. Greeks were lined up in the Helper school yard and H.E. Lewis pointed out the men he said were in the canyon. Some were chosen who hadn't been there; some who were there were not. The men were rotting in prison for the killing of Webb. Sam King tried everything he could, but nothing worked. Only if H.E. Lewis would sign that he was not sure he had the right men picked out that day, could anything be done. We convinced him to sign.119

The strike ended without unionization of the mines. The Greeks were held as the perpetrators of the strike; they would strike again. They would never be satisfied until "they had taken over."

Interview with the author April 21, 1966.


Joseph Sargetakis on the right with a friend coming out of the Castle Gate Mine No. 2 where he lost his life in an explosion March 8,1924. Photograph furnished by Steve Sargetakis.

Tragedy and Hate


w,

HILE THE TRIALS went on, the Castle Gate Mine Number 2 exploded on March 8, 1924. One hundred and seventy-two men were killed leaving 417 dependents. 120 In seven families the father and oldest son were killed. Rescue teams under the direction of Imer Pett, manager of Bingham Mines Company, worked ten days to remove the bodies. Women brought pet canaries for their use in the rescue work. At the faintest sign of gas the canaries died, and the rescue teams waited until canaries survived in the rubble before continuing. Mass burials were held as the bodies were brought up. Fifty Greeks were killed. The Greek church in Price was not large enough to hold services for the men and a public hall was used. The widows' keening of the mirologia, eerie high-pitched dirges recounting extemporaneously the life and hopes of the dead, echoed through Greek Towns. Black-dressed widows, children, and friends followed the caskets to the graveyards. The priest in black robes of mourning chanted final prayers, and the caskets were lowered into rocky excavations. On each casket, the priest sprinkled a few drops of holy oil and threw a handful of dirt. Crowded about, the people picked up a little dirt and tossed it into the open graves. The caskets were covered, rocks clanking on them. Black crosses with the names of the dead in Greek letters were driven into the ground. Greek businessmen of Helper asked donations among the Greeks to provide food and money for the dead men's families. A public subscription raised $131,351.75 for relief;121 a Workmen's Compensation Law was not in effect then. The Industrial Commission ordered Utah Fuel Company to pay approximately $5,000 to widows with children.122 A few widows took their money in one payment and returned to Crete. After a year the Greek orphans discarded their black clothing, but their mothers wore black dresses, stockings, and black Mother Hubbard caps for the rest of their lives. At the same time of the trials a newly revived southern organization, the Ku Klux Klan, took equal space in the newspapers. On the day of Manousos's conviction for assault on Sam Dorrity, an article appeared in the News Advocate entitled "What Ku Klux Klan Stands For." It listed many divergent principles from "protecting American womanhood" to preventing fires. Newspapers gave sanction to the Klan with 120

Historical Records Survey, Inventory of the County Archives of Utah, Carbon County, No. 4 (Ogden, 1940), 15. 121 Ibid. 122 U t a h , Public Documents, 1923-1924, Sec. 12, Report of the Industrial Commission, 191.


Burial of Greek miners killed in the Castle Gate mine explosion. Photograph from the Fiftieth Anniversary Book of the "Assumption" Greek O r t h o d o x C h u r c h of Price.

their continuing campaign against aliens. "Scum of Europe a Menace to the U.S." 1L>3 and "Immigration Worst Menace" 124 were typical news headings that continued into 1923 and 1924. The year 1923 was significant in the number of Greek businesses that were operating successfully in the state. Many native American girls were employed by the Greeks causing increasing tension, particularly in Carbon County. In late summer a young girl was assaulted and Greeks were blamed fork. The News Advocate oi August 2, 1923, reported: A mistaken idea prevailed that the men in the case were Greeks and indignation was centered against the Greek business houses of the city. Handbills were printed and posted carrying a warning that American girls would not be allowed to work in Greek confectionaries and restaurants, that no foreigners would be allowed to employ American girls in any capacity and that foreigners should not speak to American girls on the street on penalty of severe treatment. T h e handbill also stated that only the American language should be spoken on the streets of Price.

The article continued with a report on a fight between Steve Denos, a Greek who was supervising the finishing of his building in Price, and his workmen over one of the handbills nailed on to his building. A disturbance grew that threatened to become violent. It was stopped by 123 124

News Advocate, November 16, 1922. Ibid., July 6, 1922.


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Sheriff Deming who informed the gathering of Denos's rights. Many Price citizens, the paper stated, denounced the mob. The News Advocate continued: I t [the paper] maintains as strongly as ever t h a t there is too large a percentage of undesirables a m o n g the Greek immigrants. T h e r e are however a large n u m b e r of Greeks m a k i n g an earnest effort to be good citizens, to help build u p the communities in which they live a n d they deserve credit for their efforts. T h e r e are lots of people in C a r b o n County of various nationalities w h o are just as undesirable as the most undesirable Greeks.

The paper concluded that if parents of American girls allowed them to work for Greeks, nothing could be done. The Sun joined in condemning the men who invaded the Greek restaurant kitchens and ordered the "American" girls home. A week later the Greek priest, Father Damaskinos Smyrnopoulos, made a public protest that was printed by the News Advocate. The paper also contained a reprint from a San Francisco paper entitled, "Alien Influx Is National Menace: Must Be Stopped." A week later an American Legion convention was given front page space with the caption, "America Must Combat all Radicalism; Immigrant an American Soon or Menace." The IWW should be kept in prison, the speakers said, and as for immigrants there were too many who could not read or write English and their foreign-language newspaper should not be permitted circulation. The complete failure of the compulsory education program, which required immigrants who could not read or write English at the fifthCastle Gate, the entrance to the thirty mines of Carbon County. This landmark has been obliterated by the new highway. Photograph furnished by Mrs. Julian Adams.


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grade level to pay a $10.00 registration fee and to begin classes, was acknowledged. The aliens were either belligerent or made sport of the program. The trouble between natives and aliens was heightening each day. In the summer of 1924, the national pre-election campaigns recognized the existence of the Ku Klux Klan. In Utah the Democratic plank, executed by James H. Waters, state chairman, took a stand against the Klan. But all over the United States the Klan candidates were often winners. In Idaho the Democrats adopted a Klan plank. The activities of the Klan with their burning, flogging, and intimidation were daily news. In Utah the Klan paraded in Salt Lake City125 and in Magna and burned crosses on the Oquirrh foothills and in Helper, Utah. In Magna the Greeks followed the Klan to the park, pulled off their robes, and found what were called "prominent citizens" among the marchers. In Helper and Price the names of Klansmen filtered through to the immigrants. It was not a social stigma to belong to the Klan. Helper, with its thirty-two different nationalities, was the center of the Klan activity. In Price and in the coal camps incidents were minor and were directed against business houses. But in Helper the entire population was inThe climax of the Ku Klux Klan volved in the intensity of the Klan's campaign in Carbon County, the lynching of a Negro in 1925. demonstrations. Photograph furnished by The superior business establishMrs. Pete Pappas. ments of the Greeks were a factor. The Golden Rule Store, Success Market, Grill Cafe, Palace Candy Store, and The Toggery, among others, were leading businesses. When threats were made to the Italians through Italian banker Joseph Barboglio and to the Greeks through George Zeese, the two nationalities and the Slavic people banded together. The Irish-Catholic railroad men set themselves apart from their fellow workmen and joined the immigrants. Press Bulletin (Bingham), February 28, 1925.


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At night the Klan burned crosses on a mountainside and across the narrow valley the Catholics burned circles in answer. Hooded men had been seen in the vicinity of the Mormon church situated at the side of the railroad yards, and the immigrants believed that the Mormons were their robed enemies. The Klan filed papers of incorporation in Salt Lake City asking the right to establish branches throughout the counties of the state. By this time the Klan was falling into disgrace. The resistance of the aliens and the Catholics continued and before the year was out, the Klan was forced underground. The Ku Klux Klan episode was the last overt instance of prejudice against the Greek immigrants in the state, but the frustrated impulse to violence that had grown in Carbon County for years culminated in the lynching of a Negro. The influence of professional people was the important factor in the social climate in mining towns. In Bingham where doctors, teachers, and later mine superintendents were interested in the immigrants, there was less hostility than in places like Carbon County where professional people were apathetical and often antagonistic. A generation of children of Greek parentage was growing up with these events coloring and determining their lives. They took in the mistrust of the "Americans" from their parents. They did not know where their loyalties lay. The older girls of this generation, now in their late fifties, lived a hard life. To protect them from American influences, they were cloistered, their education cut short, and married, younger than they would have been in Greece, to much older men, the once obstreperous "disturbers of the peace." These women were far more Greek than American.


Prosperity and Depression

Prosperity of the twenties. Jim MarMelis of Magna and his American bridk Photograph from the Magita Times, Edith Ridge, editor:


I

N THE 1920's Greek schools were established in Salt Lake City, Bingham, Price, Helper, Tooele, and Midvale. (The first Ogden classes were begun in 1932.) Children attended classes after regular school, and sometimes on Saturday, in various buildings, private homes, and church basements. The quality of the teachers' educational backgrounds varied greatly. At times the children were taught by teachers who had only a year more schooling than their fathers. Often the Greek priest led the classes. There were a few exceptional teachers. Among the early teachers were: Gus Kambourakis, James Demas, John Klekas, Mrs. Harry Moscho, James Gray (Kyriakos), Mrs. John Praggastis, Mrs. John Demiris, Mrs. James Skedros, assisted by Dorothy Katris, Mrs. Harry Benakis, Miss Helen Haliori, Demetrios Zaharogiannis, Mrs. Gus Cutrubus, Panayioties Yanopoulos, Andonios Voyagis, and Mrs. Louis Frickson. One of the obstacles to learning Greek in these schools was the teaching of the purist language, the katharevousa.126 When Greece won her independence from the Turks, educators with nationalistic zeal and in an attempt to return to the purity of ancient Greek, stripped the language of foreign words left by the various conquerors and of many folk words used by the common people. The result was an artificial language not spoken at home nor anywhere else. Of all aspects of Greek immigrant life, the Greek school emphasized the foreignness of the children's background. With the immense prejudice of Americans and the isolationist policies of the United States government, it was unfashionable to be of another culture. To Americans the presence of Greek schools in their communities was the final evidence that the Greeks would never become Americanized. Mothers had not learned to speak English. Children were constantly admonished to speak Greek in their houses and to keep Greek customs and ideas. Yet Americanization was quietly going on in small ways: the buying and decorating of Christmas trees, installing pews in churches, the increasing use of English. In the 1920's the Panhellenic unions were disbanded. Many organizations took their place, the members representing a common origin in certain areas of Greece. The large Minos Club represented the Greeks from Crete. Athanasios Diakos was composed of men from the Roumeli province of Greece. The Arcadian Brotherhood consisted of men from the Peloponnese. In Salt Lake City an additional society was formed, the 126 Dalven, Modern Greek Poetry, Introduction; Mary Gianos, Modern Greek Literature (New York, 1969).


Top—The Salt Lake City Greek school in the middle twenties. The adults are (left to right), Helen Haliori, teacher; Mike Varanakis, William Souvall, and George Fountas, school committee members; and Mrs. John Demiris, teacher. Photograph furnished by Mrs. Peter Demiris. Middle—The Price Greek school of the middle twenties. Photograph from the Fiftieth Anniversary Book of the "Assumption" Greek O r t h o d o x C h u r c h of Price. Bottom—Mrs. Mary Benakis Alfieris, Greek school teacher in the Carbon County and Salt Lake City areas for many years. Photograph furnished by Mrs. John Leventis.


Magna Greek school. Photograph furnished by Mrs. John Klekas.

Greek school in Bingham. On the left is the teacher Andonios Voyagis; the priest is Father Stephanos Angelopoulos. Photograph furnished by Mayor Peter C. Dimas, Bingham.

The Ogden Greek school in 1932. The teachers are Panayiotis Yanopoulos and Mrs. Gus Cutrubus. Photograph furnished by Nina Cutrubus.


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Panahaikos for men from the province of Ahaioelidos. Women's auxiliaries and young people's groups were also established. Whatever their origin in Greece, almost all men belonged to either the Ahepa, the American Hellenic Progressive Association, or the GAPA, the Greek American Progressive Association. The Ahepa was organized primarily to counteract hostility towards Greeks. It was oriented towards assimilation with emphasis on the use of English, the language spoken in meetings. Ahepans emulated American lodges. The men wore white flannel pants and carried canes. Their national conventions were elaborate affairs in expensive hotels with formal balls and reigning queens. The GAPA was interested mainly in preserving the Greek language and traditions. Its members were conservative. They dressed in dark business suits and shunned flamboyance. Their favorite gathering was the mountain picnic with lambs roasting on spits. Americanization begins in small ways. The decorated Christmas tree was unknown in Greece. Mr. and Mrs. Gregory Halles and friends. Photograph furnished by Steve Sargetakis.


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187

Picnic of the Utah Cretan Club Minos in the late twenties. Match-making was one of the activities at picnics. Photograph furnished by Steve Sargetakis.

The 1920's were the prime of Greek immigrant life. The Greeks were now American citizens. They were still young; their children were small, dutifully following It was rare for a son of Greek immigrant Greek customs. In Greek parents to get through childhood without having his picture taken in the Towns a few sheepmen's fuoustanella. Dr. James Pappas, University of wives still carded wool, not Utah Psychology Department. through necessity, but habit. Photograph furnished by Mrs. Pete Pappas. Bread was still baked in mud ovens and the yeasty scent was in the air; boys, their heads shaved to make their new hair strong, wore kneelength rubber boots and trampled on grapes in galvanized tubs; girls sat on front porches and embroidered pillowcases for trouseaus, the American dowry. Picnics were held regularly on Sundays in nearby canyons. Often Greeks from the Salt Lake area and those from Carbon County met halfway to share the day. Men went to the picnic sites


Picnics were a Sunday habit in the twenties and thirties. A group of Magna residents. Nationalism was so important to the Greeks that they took their flags along on picnics. Photograph furnished by Angelo Heleotes.

A GAPA picnic. Stylian Staes, Greek vice-consul for Utah, Nevada, and Idaho (1922) is at the center left. Photograph furnished by Paul G. Borovilos.

Wyoming,

Plays of the thirties were performed on March 25, the date of the Revolution of 1821 that began a long struggle to overthrow the Turkish rulers. A play in Salt Lake City. Photograph furnished by Paul G. Borovilos.


Prosperity and Depression

189

before daybreak to roast lambs. Mothers made cheese pastries and honey and nut delicacies with an extra supply for the bachelors to take to their hotel rooms. For hours men played lyras, clarinos} and laoutos while the young parents and their children danced. The old laments against Fate, the great feats of the guerrilla klefts against the Turks were sung until the sun went down. Plays were produced on the theme of the Greek-Turkish war and given on March 25, the anniversary of the revolt. In Carbon County the girl stuTwo Cretans, the one on the right dents of the Greek schools took all unaccountably dressed in the parts. In Salt Lake City, the adults foustanella of the mainland Greeks were the actors. with whom they competed and often feuded. Photograph Greek immigrant life in the 1920's furnished by Mrs. Pete Georgelas. was also one of turmoil. Labor troubles and immigrant problems had welded the immigrants together, but a Greek political crisis produced a nationwide schism among the Greeks in the United States.127 With their nationalism as intense in the new country as in their native land, the Greeks followed the events in partisan Greek newspapers, debated, and fought over them in coffeehouses and wherever Greeks gathered. Followers of Premier Eleftherios Venizelos, the Cretan statesman, and those of King Constantine were as avidly loyal in America as in Greece. The formation of a Greek Orthodox archdiocese in America aligned the Liberal followers of Venizelos with Meletios Metaxakis, Metropolitan of Athens, and Bishop Alexander against the Royalist Bishop Germanos Troianos. For the ten years of the 1920's many churches were closed for long periods of time; some offered liturgies intermittently. In Carbon County where Greeks were evenly divided between Cretans and Roumeliots, the feud was incendiary. Many Cretans had come to the coal mines directly from the Bingham Strike of 1912. The harsh memories of mainland Greeks having been used as strikebreakers against them burst out. At the height of the 1922 labor troubles, a Greek was killed over the Royalist-Venizelist issue.128 127

Saloutos, Greeks in the United States, Chap. 14. Sun, February 3, 1922.

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Utah Historical

Quarterly

During these years children attended church sporadically. In Ogden, that had too few people to sustain a Greek church, children sometimes attended the Episcopal church with which the Greek Orthodox church holds in common the Nicene Creed and the recognition of each others' sacraments. The Y M C A of Helper gave a foundation in the Bible to many children, sons and daughters of Royalists and Venizelists. Prosperity continued for all Greeks during the 1920's. Mines, mills, and smelters were working at full capacity. The exodus from Greek Towns began. The trickle of laborers who had left labor for business became a great force and continued to be until the stock market crash of 1929. The Greek population remained considerably stable. In Carbon County the closing of the mines forced many Cretan families to move to The YMCA Sunday school in Helper, Utah. Many children of Greek immigrants attended Sunday school here while the Greek churches in America were undergoing a civil war. The Diamanti, Jouflas, Pallios, Zekas, and Zeese children. Photograph furnished by Mrs. Julian Adams.


The consecration of the Holy Trinity Greek Orthodox church, Salt Lake City, August 2, 1925. The man behind and to the right of the priest holding the Bible is Nick Tsiboukis, maker of the communion wine for many years. Only a person of the highest integrity was allowed^ to make wine for communion. Photograph furnished by Paul G. Borovilos.

California in hopes of finding work with countrymen in the grape region. Rows of boarded-up company houses stood deserted among tumbleweeds. Sheepmen saw the price of lambs fall from $18.00 a head to $3.00. The price of wool was so low it was not worth the money to graze sheep. Greek sheepmen suffered the bitter experience of riding the livestock freights with their sheep, unloading them, watering and feeding them, finding no buyers, loading them again at Grand Junction, Colorado, at Denver, at The first board of trustees of the newly erected Holy Trinity Greek Orthodox Church in Salt Lake City, 1925. Photograph fuurnished by Mrs. James Skedros.


A Fourth of July parade in Helper, Utah, 1930. The GAPA led by Chris Jouflas, left, mayor of Helper for many years, and James Diamanti (right), owner of Carbon Fuel Company. Photograph furnished by Mrs. Basil Theodore.

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First prize in the Covered Wagon Days Parade 1935 won by the Salt Lake Greek church. Photograph furnished by Paul G. Borovilos.

The committee for the Covered Wagon Days 1935 float. Left to right, first row James Latsis, John Kotsovos, Philip Drandos, Peter Athas, Nick Metis, William Cayias. Second row James Lambros, P. S. Marthakis, Nick Jerefos, Gus Captain. The boy is Raymond Cayias. Photograph furnished by Mrs. Nick Jerefos.


Greek Land

193

Stellios Kotsolios, owner of the Stadium Cafe in Salt Lake City, who cooked for Greek bachelors for more than fifty years. As a young man (center) fighting the Turks in his native Crete. Photograph furnished by Con Skedros.

Omaha, at Kansas City, and abandoning them in the Chicago stockyards. In the jargon of the Depression, the banks "owned" the sheepmen. Many Greek sheepmen turned from the Republican to the Democratic party during the Depression. A remnant of the thousands of Greek miners who had worked in the Carbon County mines, a hundred or less (the companies had stopped listBill Flemetakis of Price. He and his wife have served Greek food to Greek bachelors and others for nearly fifty-five years. Photograph furnished by Mrs. Albert Veltri.

Mrs. Mary Nikas Berbis, who has given a full life of service to the Greek church of Price. Photograph from the Fiftieth Anniversary Book of the "Assumption" Greek O r t h o d o x C h u r c h .

Mrs. Nick F. (Bessie Ditnton) Karras, who established a Sunday School in Price that was taught in English. Photograph from the Fiftieth Anniversary Book of the "Assumption" Greek O r t h o d o x C h u r c h .


Utah Historical

194

Quarterly

ing miners by nationalities) were involved in the Coal Strike of 1933. A feud between the National Miners Union, rumored to be Communist controlled and guilty of syndicalism, and the United Mine Workers worsened the strike. The National Guard was called in. Use of tear gas, beatings, and the jailing of 260 miners left a pall of hate over the coal towns.129 While American policies of German, Italian, and Slavic organizations in America were influenced by political leaders in their former countries, the opposite was true of Greek organizations. These often exerted pressure on the Greek government to change policies in Greece. The bleakness of the depressed times did not prevent the Greek people from holding picnics in the summer, and performing plays in the winter. The plays cost little and brought the people together. All organizations were involved in helping their members who were without work and those who were ill. Because many families could not afford the $3.00 necessary for the Easter lamb, the two churches provided the Sunday Feast of Agape (Christian Love). The climax of every year for the Orthodox is Holy Week. Forty days before Easter, the people begin to relive the events of Christ's life. The 129

Salt Lake Tribune, August 28, 1933; Deseret News, August 24, 25, 28, 1933.

The most important event of the year for Greeks is Holy Week. Roast lamb is eaten on Easter Sunday in commemoration of Christ's Passion and Resurrection. Members of the Gust Pappas and Nick Galanis families in Price. Photograph furnished by Mrs. L. P. Guy, Jr.


Prosperity and Depression

195

chandeliers of the churches are dimmed. All meat and meat products are forbidden. On Great Thursday a black cross is carried three times around the church while profound grief is intoned. On Great Friday His flowered tomb is carried three times around the inside of the church to the singing of dirges. In the first days in America, the immigrants followed the custom of Greece. In Price the tomb was taken through Main Street; in Salt Lake City, the procession followed around the church block. On Great Saturday night the church is in black stillness. At midnight a small light appears in the sanctuary. The priest approaches and lights candles held before him. Those holding burning candles give light to their neighbors. The Resurrection song begins softly: "Christ is arisen, Truly arisen." As more candles are lighted the song grows louder, certain, joyous. The Resurrection has come to Christ and all mortals. Fasting is over. The Easter feast rewards the faithful with roast lamb, symbol of Christ, eggs dyed red for His blood, goat cheese pastries, and honey and nut sweets. The first of the young people were of high-school age during the Depression. The Sons of Pericles and the Ahepa Band in Salt Lake City,

The flowered tomb of Christ is carried around the Salt Lake church on Good Friday evening while dirges are sung. The two tombs here represent separate liturgies; the great number of parishioners in the past required a second service in the Memorial Hall. Photograph furnished by John Chipian.


The Ahepa Junior Band. Adults from the left are John Held, band leader; P. S. Marthakis, Nick Floor, Emmanuel Papanikolas, and Gus Paulos. Photograph furnished by Nick Papanikolas.

both supported by the Ahepa, brought boys together from Bingham, Magna, Murray, Midvale, and Salt Lake City. The GAPA girls organizations, the Demetra Club in Salt Lake City, and the Athena Club in Carbon County provided companionship for girls in their growing years. Sons of Greek immigrants in Bingham and Magna were brought into baseball and other community activities by Catholic priests. The GAPA girls' organization, the Demetra Club of Salt Lake City in the early thirties. Photograph furnished by Mrs. Ted Heleotes.


Interior view of the Price Greek Orthodox church, the Assumption. Photograph from the Fiftieth Anniversary Book of the "Assumption' Greek Orthodox Church of Price.

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My Country 'tis of Thee

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HE ENTRANCE of the United States into the second world war revealed no greater patriots than the naturalized American citizens of Greek birth. They followed the newspapers and radio broadcasts with the same inten-


The Price Greek Orthodox church, the Assumption. Photograph from the FiftieuVAnniversary Book of the "Assumption" Greek O r t h o d o x C h u r c h of Price.

sity that their fathers, sitting in old country coffeehouses, discussed, debated, and fought over Greek crises. These newer American citizens were still vitally interested in Greece and her fate, but now American affairs took precedence. Many of their sons were in the United States forces. Four hundred and forty were from the Salt Lake congregation and 125 from the Carbon County congregation. Twenty did not return.130 A Memorial Hall was erected to honor them adjoining the Holy Trinity Church in Salt Lake City. This church, located on Second West and Third South, had been consecrated on August 25, 1925.131 At the same time American-born men of Greek parentage were taking the vows of the Greek Orthodox priesthood. This had a strong impact on the Greek church. Sunday schools began to be taught in English, a 130

Greek church records of Salt Lake City and Price. , - l T ^ e ^ C O ÂŁ S t r u C . t i o i ^ C o m m i t t e e i n c l u d e d George Zeese, P. E. Athas, P. S. Marthakis, Sam Kounahs, G. C. Captain, Gus Anton, George Cayias, and L. N. Strike.


'My Country 'tis of Thee3

199

necessity, since Greek was not being used as the principle language in the homes of the immigrants' children. Also many of the children had married people of other faiths. Contrary to the immigrants' efforts, the inevitable was happening. There are not enough Greek priests in America, but the Orthodox church is strong. The Philoptochos (Friend of the Poor), the A memorial service for King George II of Greece. The affairs of Greece have always women's church organiza- been important to Greeks in the United States. tion, performs a vital role in Adults from left are Father Antonios all church affairs. On De- Kalogeropoulos; Pete Tausoulis, honored for a lifetime of service to the Salt Lake Greek cember 21, 1968, a Greek church; Louis Flengas, chanter; and church, The Transfiguration, Paul Borovilos, president of the Salt Lake church for five years. Photograph furnished was consecrated in Ogden,132 by Paul G. Borovilos. and in August 1969, another, Prophet Elias, in Holladay held ground-breaking ceremonies. Children and grandchildren of the first Greeks have built on the sturdy foundations laid by the immigrants. After the war thousands of Greeks, who had come to America in the first days of the century, went back to visit their native land. They built churches and schoolhouses; brought water lines to replace village "Tor a history of the Ogden church see C. Nina Cutrubus album on the Ogden church consecration in the process of being published. Articles of incorporation of the Greek Orthodox church in Ogden were filed in October 1954. The committee officers were Gus J. Cutrubus, chairman; Gus G. Mahas, vice-chairman; Helen Mahlis, secretary; and Alex Papageorge, treasurer. The Salt Lake Holy Trinity by George Theodore.

Greek Orthodox

Church.

Photograph

furnished


The Ogden Greek Orthodox church, the Transfiguration. Photograph furnished by George Theodore.

wells; and gave dowries, farm animals, tractors, automobiles, and millions of dollars to help the country recover from the devastation of war. They brought, too, a new generation of Greeks to the United States. The American government allowed great numbers of immigrants entrance to aid in alleviating Greece's destitution. These newer immigrants have shown the same industriousness as that of their predecessors. The Holladay Greek Orthodox church, the Prophet Elias. Photograph furnished by George Theodore.


'My Country 'tis of Thee'

201

They have come from the same poverty. When the United States in 1921 placed a quota of one hundred Greeks per year, money sent to Greece declined. The Depression brought it to a trickle. By 1939 the average income per person in Greece was $75.00 a year. Indirect taxes on necessities brought the actual figure even lower.133 The Greece the first immigrants left seventy years ago has made advances. The new Greek immigrants have a higher degree of literacy. Education is compulsory. Roads have made villages accessible. Both of these factors have lessened the isolation of provinces from each other. The new immigrants are not eager to join organizations representing the provinces, nor are they joining the large general lodges. They see no need for them. They have not had the experiences of prejudice that turned the first Greeks inward. To them the church is the binding force of ethnic life. Nor do they think it necessary to shorten their names for convenience as the first Greeks were often ordered to do by judges granting them citizenship. Much has happened since those first days of abusive newspaper reporting and real-estate clauses prohibiting Greeks from living in certain areas. The America the new immigrants have come to has vastly changed. It has found that assimilation comes with time and varying degrees for 133

Stavrianos, Balkans Since 1453, 681.

A present-day Greek school in Price. Photograph from the Fiftieth Anniversary Book of the "Assumption" Greek O r t h o d o x C h u r c h of Price.


Archbishop Iakovos, primate of North and South America, at the consecration of the Ogden church, The Transfiguration. Father Demetrios Simeonidis, Ogden priest is at left and Father Elias Stephanopoulos, Salt Lake priest at right. Photograph furnished by Nina Cutrubus.

different cultures. There were no outcries when the immigration doors were opened to the Greeks after the second world war. Greece had amazed the world when Mussolini's mechanized army landed on the western shores of Greece. The Greeks painted the word "Ohi" (No) in great letters on her mountains, and poorly equipped and fed, they drove


"My Country 'tis of Thee"

203

the Italians back to the sea. Their heroism against the Nazi invaders further won the admiration of the world.134 At the end of the war, America invited Greek immigrants to become its citizens and gave great economic aid to Greece. Karl V. King, son of Sam King (the attorney for early Greeks), lobbied successfully to bring sheepherders from the Pyranees, northern Italy, and Greece. Many young Greeks came to Utah under this enabling legislation. Pictures of Mr. King, sent back to identify him when he traveled into the mountains of Central Greece for the Roumeliot sheepherders, were displayed in coffeehouses and cafes. He was recognized and welcomed everywhere from towns to remote villages.135 The end of seventy years in the new country shows that the initial contribution of the Greeks to the building of roads, railroads, and bridges, and the mining of coal and metals was followed by a significant entrance into business. The importance of education to the immigrants sent a large number of their children to college. The Salt Lake church has a greater number of college graduates in its congregation than any other Greek church in the United States.136 Among Utah Greeks and their children are members of every profession, in all levels of teaching, and, especially, in business. Two companies, the Ajax Company of Salt Lake City and the Carbon Fuel Company of Helper, sell their products throughout the world. The Greek Towns are gone. Greek schools are still held but with diminished enrollment. Few sheepmen's sons have chosen to carry on their fathers' lonely, vigorous life. The coffeehouses have closed; there are not enough old men to support them. Old-country customs of mourning have fallen away; the mirologia have not been sung since before the second world war; memorial wheat is no longer elaborately decorated, but enclosed in small, stapled plastic bags. Icons and vigil lights remain. Children of immigrant Greeks look back on their parents with the maturity of time and respect them for their triumphs. They infused new blood into America and with that of other immigrant groups helped it retain its vitality. America has well repaid them with opportunities found nowhere else in the world. 134

George Psychoundakis, The Cretan

Runner,

trans, by Patrick Leigh Fermor (London,

1955). 135 Interview with Sam King, grandson of Sam A. King and son of Karl V. King, J a n u a r y 20, 1970. 136 Interview with Reverend Father Steven Katsaris.


HELEN ZEESE PAPANIKOLAS The daughter of a Greek immigrant family, Mrs. Helen Zeese Papanikolas has been prepared by birth and experience to write The Greek Immigrants of Utah. She was born in the little town of Cameron, Carbon C o u n t y — spending her young life and first schooling years there in intimate contact with the first and second generation Greeks of the area. Moving with her parents to Salt Lake City, she took her Bachelor of Arts at the University of Utah. She married Nick Papanikolas of the firm of Cannon-Papanikolas, and with him has raised a son and daughter, both of whom, like their mother, have been interested in writing. Mrs. Papanikolas has been closely involved in church and civic affairs, playing an active role in the Greek Orthodox church. She has worked for the placement and care of unfortunate children in her role as a board member of the Children's Service Society. The Utah State Historical Society has enjoyed a long and pleasant association with Mrs. Papanikolas. She has served on the Utah Historical Quarterly Advisory Board of Editors since its inception where she has rendered varied and valued services. She has done research in the Society's library and called many valuable manuscripts and other research material to the attention of the librarian. She is a past contributor to the Historical Quarterly upon whose pages her writing first appeared in 1954. She has also written for other publications including The Western Humanities Review. She is the author of a section on Greek folklore which will appear in a book on Utah Folklore presently being published by the University of Utah Press. In this issue of the Quarterly, Mrs. Papanikolas's happy facility for lucid and graceful expression, her intimate knowledge of the Greeks, and her valuable photographic collection come together in a most worthy contribution to the social history of the Intermountain West. CHARLES S. PETERSON

Editor


UTAH STATE HISTORICAL SOCIETY Membership in the Utah State Historical Society is open to all individuals and institutions who are interested in Utah history. We invite everyone to join this one official agency of state government charged by law with the collection, preservation, and publication of materials on Utah and related history. Through the pages of the Utah Historical Quarterly, the Society is able to fulfill part of its legal responsibility. Your membership dues provide the means for publication of the Quarterly. So, we earnestly encourage present members to interest their friends in joining them in furthering the cause of Utah history. Membership brings with it the Utah Historical Quarterly, the bimonthly Newsletter, and special prices on publications of the Society. The different classes of membership are: Student Annual Life

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UTAH STATE HISTORICAL SOCIETY

BOARD O F STATE H I S T O R Y Division of Department of Development Services M I L T O N c. ABRAMS, L o g a n , 1973

President DELLO G. DAYTON, O g d e n , 1971

Vice

President

CHARLES s. P E T E R S O N , Salt Lake City Secretary DEAN R. B R I M H A L L , F r u i t a , 1973 MRS.

J U A N I T A B R O O K S , St. George, 1973

J A C K GOODMAN, Salt Lake City, 1973 MRS.

A. c. J E N S E N , S a n d y , 1971

THERON L U K E , PrOVO, 1 9 7 1 CLYDE L. M I L L E R , Secretary of S t a t e

Ex

officio

H O W A R D c. P R I C E , J R . , Price, 1971 MRS.

E L I Z A B E T H S K A X C H Y , M i d v a l e , 1973

MRS. NAOMI WOOLLEY, Salt Lake City, 1971

ADVISORY BOARD O F EDITORS THOMAS G. ALEXANDER, PrOVO S. GEORGE ELLSWORTH, MRS.

Logan

PEARL J A C O B S O N , Richfield

DAVID E. MILLER, Salt Lake City

MRS. H E L E N z. PAPANIKOLAS, Salt Lake City LAMAR P E T E R S E N , Salt Lake City HAROLD SCHINDLER, Salt Lake City JEROME STOFFEL, Logan

ADMINISTRATION C H A R L E S s. P E T E R S O N , D i r e c t o r J O H N JAMES, J R . , Librarian

T h e U t a h State Historical Society is a n organization devoted to t h e collection, preservation, a n d publication of U t a h a n d related history. I t was organized by publicspirited U t a h n s in 1897 for this purpose. I n fulfillment of its objectives, t h e Society p u b lishes t h e Utah Historical Quarterly, which is distributed to its members with payment of a $5.00 a n n u a l membership fee. T h e Society also maintains a specialized research library of books, pamphlets, photographs, periodicals, microfilms, newspapers, maps, a n d manuscripts. M a n y of these items have come to t h e library as gifts. Donations are encouraged, for only through such means can the U t a h State Historical Society live u p to its responsibility of preserving t h e record of U t a h ' s past.

MARGERY w . W A R D , Associate E d i t o r IRIS S C O T T , Business M a n a g e r

T h e primary purpose of the Quarterly is t h e publication of manuscripts, photographs, a n d documents which relate o r give a new interpretation to U t a h ' s unique story. Contributions of writers are solicited for the consideration of t h e editor. However, t h e editor assumes n o responsibility for t h e return of manscripts unaccompanied by r e turn postage. Manuscripts a n d material for publications should be sent to the editor. T h e U t a h State Historical Society does not assume responsibility for statements of fact or opinions expressed by contributors. T h e Utah Historical Quarterly is entered as second-class postage, paid a t Salt Lake City, U t a h . Copyright 1970, U t a h State Historical Society, 603 East South T e m p l e Street, Salt Lake City, U t a h 84102.


HISTORICAL QUARTERLY

SUMMER 1970 / VOLUME 38 / NUMBER 3

Contents COLORADO RIVER EXPLORATION AND THE MORMON WAR BY MELVIN T . SMITH

-

—- 207

MORMONS, CRICKETS, AND GULLS: A NEW LOOK AT AN OLD STORY BY WILLIAM HARTLEY

224

THE CHANGING IMPACT OF MINING ON THE ECONOMY OF TWENTIETH CENTURY UTAH BY JAMES B. ALLEN

-

240

FAIRNESS IN THE SALT LAKE COUNTY PROBATE COURT BY JAY E. POWELL

-

256

AN INDUSTRIAL HOME FOR POLYGAMOUS WIVES BY GUSTIVE O. LARSON

263

REVIEWS AND PUBLICATIONS

276

EDITOR ASSOCIATE EDITOR

CHARLES S. PETERSON Margery W. Ward

THE COVER A lithograph taken from Joseph C. Ives, Report Upon the Colorado River of the West (Washington, D . C , 1861). The lithograph was done from a sketch of Cane Brake Canyon.


Books Reviewed

PRICE, RAYE CARLESON, Diggings and Doings in Park City, BY LUCYBETH C. RAMPTON

276

BENNETT, KAY, and RUSS, A Navajo Saga, BY H . BAXTER LIEBLER

277

COOLEY, E V E R E T T L., Utah: Guide to Localized History,

A

Students'

BY EUGENE E. CAMPBELL

278

GROVER, DAVID H., Diamondfleld Jack: Study in Frontier Justice, BY CHARLES KELLY

A

_

279

FIFE, AUSTIN E., and ALTA S., eds., Cowboy and Western Songs: A Comprehensive Anthology, BY JAN HAROLD BRUNVAND

280

BAKER, PEARL, Trail On The Water, BY P. T. REILLY

282

UDALL, LOUISE, Me and Mine: Story of Helen Sekaquaptewa, BY CHARLES S. PETERSON

The

Life

_

283

HICKS, J O H N D., My Life with History, An Autobiography, BY RICHARD D. POLL __

284

WATKINS, T. H , and CONTRIBUTORS, The Grand Colorado: The Story of a River and its Canyons, BY ROBERT W. DELANEY

285

SILVERBERG, ROBERT, Ghost Towns of the American West, BY JAMES B. ALLEN

286

WATKINS, A R T H U R V., Enough Rope: The inside story of the censure of Senator Joe McCarthy by his colleagues—the controversial hearings that signaled the end of a turbulent career and a fearsome era in American public

life, BY RUDOLFO MARTINEZ

287


Colorado River Exploration And The Mormon War BY MELVIN T. S M I T H

Rio of the West had long been important in A. western American history — with Indians, Spaniards, Mexicans, and LTHOUGH THE

COLORADO

American trappers and traders playing important roles in its colorful Mr. Smith, formerly associate professor of history at Dixie College, is preservation officer of the Utah Historic Sites Survey. The information appearing on the Mormon War-Colorado River map was supplied by the author. All of the illustrations in this article are taken from Joseph C. Ives, Report Upon the Colorado River of the West (Washington, D . C , 1861).

Pyramid

Canyon


208

Utah Historical

Quarterly

s t o r y — n o t until the Mexican W a r did the United States government and the Mormons become interested in it. At that time both did. T h a t coincident interest reached a zenith at the time of the Mormon War. This article discusses the policies of the government, the reactions of the Mormons, and the impact of both on the Colorado River Indians, whose former isolation had been insulation from the white man's dominion, and on the development of river navigation. T h e Mormon W a r produced a change; by 1858 a new era had begun. G O V E R N M E N T EXPEDITIONS

T h e federal government conducted several surveys relating to the Colorado River before commissioning Lieutenant Joseph C. Ives's Expedition in 1857. First of all it reserved the right to navigate the river in the Treaty of Guadelupe Hidalgo in 1848. 1 Further it sent out Derby in 1850, Sitgreaves in 1851, Heintzelman in 1852, and Whipple in 1853, all of whom gathered information on the river's navigability. 2 Another important report came from Lieutenant Sylvester Mowry, who h a d spent the winter of 1854-55 in Salt Lake City as a part of Colonel Edward Jenner Steptoe's command, but who had made himself unwelcome because of his attentions to one of Brigham Young's daughters-in-law. 3 Mowry reached Las Vegas in June 1855, about the same time as the Mormons, and discussed their interest in Colorado River navigation with them. W h e n he arrived in California, Mowry suggested to his superiors that an expedition, led by him, be organized to explore the Colorado to the high point of navigation and survey a wagon route from there all the way to Salt Lake City. Perhaps Mowry saw in the venture a back-handed way of getting at Brigham Young who had encouraged his departure from the City of the Saints. Mowry also reported with some concern the presence of Mormon missionaries among the Indians on the Santa Clara, Virgin, and Muddy rivers. 4 1 Treaty of Guadalupe Hidalgo, 1848, Article V I . See also the provisions for similar rights in the Gadsen Purchase Treaty, 1853, Article IV. Both are recorded in Hazel Emery Mills, " T h e Arizona Fleet," American Neptune, I ( 1 9 4 1 ) , 260. 2 See Godfrey Sykes, The Colorado Delta (New York, 1937), 1 7 - 1 8 ; Lorenzo Sitgreaves, Report of an Expedition Down the Zuni and Colorado Rivers in 1851, U.S., Congress, Senate Ex. Doc. 59, 32d Cong., 2d Sess., 1852-1853; Samuel P. Heintzelman, Report of Indian Affairs on the Pacific, U.S., Congress, House Ex. D o c , 34th Cong., 3d Sess., 1856-1857, pp. 38-39; A. W. Whipple, Reports of Explorations and Surveys, to Ascertain the Most Practicable and Economical Route for a Railroad from the Mississippi River to the Pacific Ocean . . . in 1853-[6] (Washington, D . C , 1856). 3 Lynn R. Bailey, ed., "Lt. Sylvester Mowry's Report on His March in 1855 from Salt Lake City to Fort Tejon," Arizona and the West, V I I (Winter, 1965), 329-45. 4 Ibid., 341-43. Mowry argued that the Mormon-Indian alliances were dangerous for the United States in 1855, since he believed the Mormons would arm and lead the Indians. He suggested an annual military expedition over the California Trail to contact the chiefs and keep their loyalty to the government.


Colorado River Exploration

209

Later the U.S. government sent Lieutenant Edward Beale's camel experiment on the 35th parallel route from Texas to Fort Tejon, California. He reached the Colorado River October 20, 1857. Beale had intended to explore down the river to Fort Yuma, but because he could find no guide, due to the hostilities of the Mojave Indians, gave up those plans, swam his camels across the river, and continued on west.5 The most significant river project was undertaken by Lieutenant Joseph C. Ives, when the funds to explore the Colorado River were finally appropriated by the Congress and assigned to him by Secretary of War John B. Floyd in the early summer of 1857. Ives built a steamer in Philadelphia, tested it on the Delaware River (sans sand, mud, and rocks), then dismantled and shipped it to California, and from there to the mouth of the Colorado River. In late November he began the task of reassembling. By December 29 his Explorer had up a head of steam. The other contingents of his "expedition" arrived overland at Fort Yuma during the month. 6 EARLY MORMON INTEREST IN T H E COLORADO RIVER

Mormon Battalion men had reported on the fertile lands along the Colorado River where they crossed at the junction of the Gila en route to California in 1846.7 Then, after settling their people in Great Salt Lake Valley in 1847, the Mormon leaders conceived of a State of Deseret large enough to include a sea outlet, either on the Colorado River or on the Pacific Ocean, or both. 8 When Congress reduced the size of the Territory of Utah in 1850, the Mormons made efforts to retain control of a route to the Pacific. In 1851 Brigham Young reported plans to route immigration across the Panama peninsula and up the Colorado River. 9 Naturally, he followed the government's surveys closely. He next established a series of settlements along a corridor south from Salt Lake City through Utah, across the desert to San Bernardino, California. A big link in that effort was the establishment of the Mormon Indian Mission at Las Vegas in June 1855. About the fifteenth of the month, 5 8

Lewis Burt Lesley, Uncle Sam's Camels . . . (Cambridge, 1929), 2 6 0 - 6 1 . Joseph C. Ives, Report of the Colorado River of the West (Washington, D . C , 1861),

1-44. 7 J. Cecil Alter, ed., "Extracts from the J o u r n a l of Henry W. Bigler," Utah Historical Quarterly, V (April, 1932), 35-64, and J. Cecil Alter, ed., "Journal of Robert S. Bliss with the M o r m o n Battalion," U.H.Q., I V (July, 1931), 83. 8 " J o u r n a l History" (Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints Historian's Library, Salt Lake C i t y ) , M a r c h 9, 1849. Brigham Young stated t h a t they were considering several possibilities for routing their Saints to the new Zion. 8 Ibid., October 23, 1851. Young reported that he h a d learned of surveys at the m o u t h of the Colorado and asked for reports to be m a d e to him of progress.


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William Bringhurst and "missionaries" arrived to build a post and pacify the Indians, who persistently raided the supply trains passing through their lands.10 At the same time, Rufus C. Allen, president of the Southern Indian Mission, appeared with an expedition to explore the Colorado River to determine its navigability. This group traveled southeast down Vegas Wash to the river, then south along the western portion of Black Canyon for some fifteen difficult miles. Lava rock, water shortage, and weather so hot that it boiled water in their canteens and caused the mules to lie down to relieve their burning feet when they stopped, forced the expedition to return to the mission, convinced that traffic on the Colorado River was possible, and at that time of year, much preferred to traffic overland. The following January William Bringhurst led a second expedition up the Colorado, Virgin, and Muddy rivers then returned to Las Vegas. 11 However, Mormons made no attempts to navigate the river at that time. MORMON-GOVERNMENT RELATIONS

In 1857 Mormon-government relations changed dramatically. Reports from deposed territorial judge, W. W. Drummond, 12 and freighter W. M. F. McGraw, 13 combined with the suspicious and antagonistic accounts taken East by disgruntled Mormons and Gentiles who had been in Utah, convinced President James Buchanan that new officials were needed in Utah Territory. Therefore, he relieved Brigham Young as governor and appointed Alfred E. Cumming in his stead. To ensure that the Mormons would submit to federal authority, an army of 2,500 men was sent as an escort. Reports of the army's coming reached church leaders on July 24, 1857. Reaction was immediate. The Mormons chose to resist. Their strategy called for a close surveillance of the army coming from the East with plans to stop it short of Utah. They also recalled most of the Saints from settlements on the periphery of Zion — those in southern California and Nevada being particularly significant to this study.14 Next, alli10 Andrew Jenson, comp., " T h e History of the Las Vegas Mission," Nevada State Historical Society Papers, 1925-1926, 5 (Reno, 1926), 277-79. T h e mission was abandoned in the spring of 1858. " T h o m a s D . Brown, "Journal for the Southern Indian Mission" (typescript, Dixie College, St. George), 120-25. See also Thomas D. Brown, Tournal (typescript Brigham Young University, Provo), n.p. I n Allen's party were Rufus C Allen, T h o m a s D . Brown Isaac Riddle Thales Haskell, James Allred, and Peter Shirts. 12 See J u d g e W. W. D r u m m o n d ' s Letter of Resignation, in LeRoy R. and Ann W Hafen eds., The Utah Expedition, 1857-1858: A Documentary Account of the United States Military Movement Under Colonel Albert Sidney lohnston . . . (Glendale, 1958), 363-66. 13 Letter of W. M . F. M c G r a w to President, ibid., 3 6 1 - 6 3 . " J u a n i t a Brooks, The Mountain Meadows Massacre (Norman, 1962), 147. Evacuation of San Bernardino, California, was begun by November of 1857.


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Peak

ances with the Indian tribes (their Lamanite friends) were expanded. 15 Militancy replaced pacification. Finally, Brigham Young, still officially governor of Utah Territory, declared martial law and counseled the Saints to horde supplies, munitions, weapons, and food.16 Needless to say, rumors chased rumors throughout the settlements, especially after the Mountain Meadows Massacre in southern Utah on September 11, 1857. The wanton killing of defenseless men and women by an alliance of Indians and Mormons shocked even those who participated in it. The tragedy was a single act, but the strategy that helped produce it, extended beyond Mountain Meadows. 17 On the southern boundaries, Mormons were kept busy returning Saints to Zion and escorting Gentiles to California. Jacob Hamblin had replaced Rufus Allen as president of the Indian Mission. His tasks were 15 See Jacob Hamblin Diary as quoted in ibid., 4 1 . T h e "Journal History," September 1, 1857, noted t h a t " H a m b l i n arrived in Great Salt Lake City from the Santa Clara Mission with 12 Indian chiefs who h a d come to see President Young . . . ." Both Lieutenant Mowry in 1855 and Lieutenant A. W. Whipple in 1854 were apprehensive of the M o r m o n - I n d i a n alliances in the south. See Whipple, Reports of Explorations and Surveys, 129. 16 Brooks, Mountain Meadows Massacre, 15—30. 17 Ibid. Mrs. Brooks's scholarly study discusses in detail the events a n d people involved. T h e M o r m o n - I n d i a n alliances were dangerous for both Mormons and Gentiles and reached to most of the tribes in the M o r m o n country, though the government officially frowned u p o n it. See Hafen and Hafen, Utah Expedition, 282, 288. Apparently, Indian Agent Garland H u r t was liable for a reprimand for reports of his work with the Indians in U i n t a Basin.


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to "control" the Indians, 18 to guide wagon trains through hostile Indians, and to continue to "convert" the Indians to the Mormon cause. Hamblin and his missionaries found that their Indian allies sometimes had a difficult job understanding both conversion (support of the Mormons) and control (Mormons not allowing them to raid and kill Mormon enemies). 19 LEAVITT-HATCH MISSION

Hamblin could check the rumors of invasions from California, of which there were legion after the massacre, by talking with returning Saints.20 But rumors of a government invasion up the Colorado River were something else. Therefore, late in 1857,21 he called Dudley Leavitt and Ira Hatch on "missions" to the Iyats (Mojaves) who lived on the Colorado River near present-day Needles, California. Traveling with their Paiute friends as far south as Cottonwood Valley, these two men made contact with the Mojave, but stopped short of the main villages in Mojave Valley because of evident hostility. In fact one evening a few Mojaves held a pow-wow and sentenced the Mormons to death. Ira Hatch pled with the "war chief" for a chance to talk with the Great Spirit once more before dying. The chief consented. Hatch's fervent plea, in Paiute, was translated to the Mojave by Paiute friends, and so impressed the chief that he and his daughter protected the men during the night and helped "free them" the next morning. They returned to Las Vegas immediately. While escorting a wagon train to California in early January 1858, Jacob Hamblin was told by some Indians near Las Vegas that his friends Ira Hatch and Dudley Leavitt had been killed; however, much to his relief, a young Paiute finally showed him where they were hidden. The 18 Letter of Brigham Y o u n g to Jacob Hamblin, August 4, 1857, in Brooks, Mountain Meadows Massacre, 3 4 - 3 5 . ". . . for they [the Indians] must learn that they have either got to help us or the United States will kill us both." 19 Jacob Hamblin, Journals, 1854, 1858, 1869, 1874 (originals, L.D.S. C h u r c h Historian's Library; typescript, U t a h State Historical Society), 2 8 - 3 0 . I n the manuscript account as quoted in Brooks, Mountain Meadows Massacre, 22, H a m b l i n relates an account of Indians robbing a train west of the M u d d y , probably in October of 1857. ^ R e p o r t of Colonel E. B. Alexander to Colonel S. Cooper, October 9, 1857, in Hafen and Hafen, Utah Expedition, 69—74. Alexander suggests on the last page of his report " t h a t troops be sent from California and Oregon." Rumors of such an army persisted, b u t it never materialized. See also Letter of William H . D a m e and James Lewis to George A. Smith and Letter of Jesse N . Smith to George A. Smith, "Journal History," December 23, 1857, and also quoted in Brooks, Mountain Meadows Massacre, 148-49. Smith mentions "a p a r t y of 300 troops coming up the Colorado conducted by old mountaineer [Johnson]." 21 Hamblin, Journal, 28—30. Hamblin does not give the date of this mission, but it must have ended about J a n u a r y 1, 1858. See Lieutenant White's report in A r t h u r Woodward, Feud on the Colorado (Los Angeles, 1955), 100. White states that two Mormons had been among those Indians some twenty days previously.


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missionaries then recounted their narrow escape from the Mojaves.22 Their "mission" to gain support from the Mojave Indians had been cut short; nevertheless, they had an impact on the region.23 GEORGE A. J O H N S O N EXPEDITION

Rumors worked down river rapidly. The Chemehuevis had killed two Mexicans, which, with the Mormons' visit, made the Yumas and civilians on the river and the military at Fort Yuma uneasy.24 George A. Johnson, whose Colorado River Navigation Company operated two steamers on the lower river, capitalized on the unrest. He had earlier sought the assignment of exploring the Colorado River for himself, but in the eyes of those people making the decisions, apparently his services were too expensive.25 And although Lieutenant Ives was at the mouth of the Colorado assembling his steamer, Johnson could still be first up the river. He began his venture by sending a Yuma Indian to the Mojave villages where he built a tule raft and floated downstream observing the current, rapids, sandbars, etc. From Lieutenant James A. Winder, acting commander of Fort Yuma, Johnson received supplies and an escort of sixteen soldiers under the command of Lieutenant James White. Accompanying the group was a complement of sixteen civilians — trappers and miners, some of whom knew the river and region well — and Chief Pascual of the Yumas. On December 20, the General Jesep, a side-wheeler, began its ascent. The expedition had three objectives: to check on Indian unrest and the death of the two Mexicans, to reconnoiter the Mormons' activities among the Indians (but "to avoid any collision" with either), and to explore the river.26 22 Hamblin, Journal, 33. Hamblin was guiding the Livingston-Kincaid party at the time. H e speaks of an ambuscade planned against the party at the M u d d y River by Perry Liston, Jehiel McConnell, and a group of Indians. 23 Ibid., 3 0 - 3 2 , a n d also Woodward, Feud on the Colorado, 100. 24 Woodward, Feud on the Colorado, 79—80. See also Ives, Report of the Colorado River, 44, under date of J a n u a r y 9, 1858, at Fort Y u m a : "At present they [the Y u m a Indians] are in a state of m u c h excitement. There is a settlement of Mormons not far from the Colorado, a few hundred miles above, a n d it is rumored t h a t some of t h a t people have been among the upper tribes of Indians, telling them of their difficulties with other whites and endeavoring to secure a n alliance. T h e r e is an impression among these Indians that the Mormons contemplate, before long, descending the Colorado, which corresponds with a rumor brought from the east by the latest mail of a projected movement into Sonora. T h e commanding officer of the Fort, Lieutenant Winder, a few days ago, sent Lieutenant White with a detachment of men, u p the river, with Captain Johnson, to make a reconnaissance and endeavor to ascertain the truth of these reports." 25 Woodward, Feud on the Colorado, 69—74. By 1856 Johnson h a d the General Jesep and Colorado steaming up river from the Gulf of California with supplies for Fort Y u m a and other nearby areas. 28 Ibid., 8 0 - 8 3 .


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3&§te»

Cottonwood

~%JiLt? '

* ' i ^ ? i f c ^ ^ ^ ^ ' h ^ ^ ^ y ' ^ l « * *.**L

Valley

Lieutenant White's journal details the trip. With some difficulties they steamed up the Colorado beyond the Bill Williams River, into Chemehuevi Valley, then into Mojave Valley, and on into Pyramid Canyon. White's account continues: This marks the end of our route, by steamer. Just at the entrance of the valley succeeding this canon, we found a succession of three rapids . . . [so] we went, with a small boat a n d a p a r t y on land, about five miles above where the steamer lay. This brought us to the border of the b o t t o m lands of the valley. I t appeared to extend u p river, about 10 miles, a n d was probably some three miles wide. A good growth of cottonwood was visible. 27

Without question they had reached the lower end of Cottonwood Valley, which White located at 35° 18', and which concurs with Ives's map of the region.28 The Indians in Cottonwood Valley told them that two Mormons had been there some twenty days before. The small party returned to the General Jesep. Lieutenant White was greatly concerned. "Ibid., under date of 28 Ives, the Colorado,

97-104. Lieutenant James White wrote his report upon his return to Fort Yuma J a n u a r y 30, 1858. Report of the Colorado River, see accompanying maps. Also Woodward Feud on 88, 104.


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While the steamer was stopped to load wood, White learned that Lieutenant Beale had just returned with a few camels from Fort Tejon, with Major George Blake and an escort of one hundred men. They met at the river crossing January 23, 1858. Lieutenant White discussed the Mormon problem with both Beale and Blake.29 He reported to them that he had advised the Indians to stay out of any fight that might develop between the Mormons and the government. He had also told the Mojaves to discourage any other Indians, allied with the Mormons, from coming among them. White later recommended that tools for farming be given these Indians to keep their support. 30 Captain Johnson ferried Beale's outfits across the Colorado, and then steamed down river for Fort Yuma. His venture had been daring and successful even though he was short by some thirty miles of reaching Eldorado Canyon, as he claimed, years later, to have done. 31 Major Blake returned to California, while Lieutenant Beale continued his course eastward. L Y M A N - K A N E REPORT

In January 1858 Hamblin met Mormon Apostle Amasa M. Lyman at the Muddy River en route to California to get his own family. They discussed the rumors of an invasion via the Colorado River and the HatchLeavitt mission. Lyman reported in a letter to Brigham Young, before reaching Vegas Springs: T h e Indians have b r o u g h t us the news t h a t the " A m e r i c a t s " are coming u p the Colorado to kill off t h e M o r m o n s a n d Indians. Of this we hope to learn more, as we intend, so soon as we shall r e t u r n from the present excursion . . . to visit the Colorado a n d t h a t portion of the country occupied by the " H y a t h s " with a p a r t y of twenty m e n a n d four missionaries, some, or all of w h o m , we propose to leave there if circumstances are favorable. 3 2

When Apostle Lyman arrived at the Mojave River he met Major Blake just returning from the Colorado. On January 31, the Major reported to him that: 29 Lesley, Uncle Sam's Camels, 123, 261—62. See also Woodward, Feud on the Colorado, 91. Johnson reported "Colonel" Blake had sixty men and that Lieutenant Beale had twelve camels. Blake had accompanied Beale because of the Mojave Indian unrest. Beale was on his return to Texas. 30 Woodward, Feud on the Colorado, 100-3. 31 George Alonzo Johnson, "Life of Captain George A. Johnson" (typescript, California State Library, Sacramento), as quoted in Woodward, Feud on the Colorado, 88. 32 Letter of Amasa M. Lyman to Brigham Young, January 17, 1858 (L.D.S. Church Historian's Library). Lyman's plans were further modified by his meeting with Colonel Thomas L. Kane later. The "Americats" invasion was probably the Johnson-White Expedition on the General Jesep.


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The expedition to explore the Colorado River had been perfectly successful, that there was [sic] three steamers [Johnson had two and Ives had one,] on the river, that another of 5 feet draught was to be placed on it in a short time, that they had arrived within 70 miles of the mouth of the Virgin and that they expected to be able to reach the mouth with vesels of that way [weight?]. He also hinted that 3000 men wfould] be sent up that way.33

Needless to say, L y m a n was alarmed. H e began his return to U t a h with his family as soon as he could. By February 14 h e was nearly to Las Vegas, at which point his party was overtaken by Colonel T h o m a s L. K a n e , traveling as a Dr. A. Osbourne, who h a d come from Philadelphia to mediate the M o r m o n conflict. L y m a n joined K a n e and together they took a fast carriage for Salt Lake City. At the M u d d y River they stopped to talk with Ira H a t c h and Thales Haskell, who were working with the Paiute Indians, 3 4 then continued on through the settlements of U t a h and reached Salt Lake City, February 25. They reported to Brigham Young the next day. 35 Both K a n e and L y m a n remained in council with Brigham Young and the M o r m o n leaders until M a r c h 8, at which time K a n e went east to meet Governor C u m m i n g with Johnston's Army in Wyoming, and Amasa Lyman headed south to organize and encourage the Saints and to prepare an expedition to the Colorado River. 36 JACOB H A M B L I N EXPEDITION

I n the meantime, further south on the Virgin and M u d d y rivers, H a m b l i n and his missionaries received repeated overtures from the Iyats (Mojaves) asking them to "come and visit them," 3 7 suggesting that Indian scouts for the Mormons h a d picked up rumors of another expedition on the Colorado River (Ives), though H a m b l i n does not confirm this. At any rate, Jacob Hamblin, Dudley Leavitt, Thales Haskell, and Samuel Knight m a d e preparations for another "mission" to the Colorado. They left the Virgin on M a r c h 6, arrived in Vegas on the tenth, and remained there until the twelfth of M a r c h . Then, with the Vegas Chief 33

Amasa M. Lyman, J o u r n a l N u m b e r 16 (typescript, Brigham Young University), 95-105. Albert L. Zobell, Jr., " T h o m a s L. K a n e : Ambassador to the M o r m o n s " (master's thesis, University of U t a h , 1944), 67. See also Brooks, Mountain Meadows Massacre, 130-33. 35 Zobell, "Thomas L. K a n e , " 67. 36 Letter of Brigham Y o u n g to Jacob Hamblin, M a r c h 5, 1858, in Brooks, Mountain Meadows Massacre, 124. This letter asks the missionaries to "assist Brother Amasa all they can in his exploration." 37 Hamblin, Journal, 34. Jacob Hamblin h a d been privy to Lyman's plans for an expedition of "20 men and 4 missionaries to the Hyatts." Hamblin wrote a letter to Brigham Young on February 19 and may have discussed the "mission" he planned to the Colorado. H e did report the "genial influence" spreading over the Indians. 34


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Pat Sarump, they proceeded overland south on a route parallel to the river, but west of Black Canyon. They reached the Colorado itself on March 15, north of Cottonwood Valley. At the latter location, their Indian friends apprised them of the "enemy. " 3 8 LIEUTENANT IVES^S EXPEDITION

The Mormon War apparently had not been a part of Lieutenant Ives's original Colorado River assignment. His job was to explore the river and determine its navigability and its usefulness as a supply route into the mountain interior, including Utah. However, even before the Explorer reached Fort Yuma, a mail delivery brought news of the Mormon conflict.39 At the fort additional rumors circulated freely, so that by the time Ives's expedition headed up river (January 11, 1858), he had become involved. The Yuma Indians about the fort believed that the Mormons and "allies" might soon invade down the river.40 The Explorer proceeded upstream haltingly, much to the delight of the Indian spectators. The Lieutenant soon discovered that the trip would take longer than he had first anticipated, so when the General Jesep steamed by, returning from its exploration, Ives sent Lieutenant John Tipton back to Fort Yuma to bring the packtrain up river to the Mojave villages. Ives may have talked with Lieutenant James White about the Mormons; however, neither of the men mentions such a conversation.41 Lieutenant Ives got along well with the Colorado Indians by giving them presents and by taking their chiefs for rides on the steamer. Of special help were two Mojave chiefs, Cairook and Ireteba, who knew the river well.42 Above the Mojave villages, the Explorer steamed into Pyramid Canyon, across the succession of rapids that had turned the General Jesep back, on into Cottonwood Valley, up along Cottonwood Island to Painted Canyon, past Round Island, and on to Eldorado Canyon some thirty miles 38 Ibid. I n his record H a m b l i n states t h a t I r a H a t c h went with the g r o u p ; however, the fact is that he did not go. Very likely he remained on the M u d d y to look after the "mission" there. T h e following m o n t h he joined the L y m a n Expedition to the Colorado as a guide a n d interpreter. 39 Ives, Report of the Colorado River, 39. 40 Ibid., 44. T h e situation for the Indians must have been frustrating. They were u n h a p p y with the prospects of either M o r m o n or government invasion of their lands. Such an attitude explains the hostility of the Mojaves. 41 Ibid., 56. Also see Woodward, Feud on the Colorado, 9 7 - 1 0 4 . 42 Ives, Report of the Colorado River, 6 5 - 7 4 . Ives spells the chief's name Ireteba, while other writers spell it Irataba. Ives h a d known both men from the Whipple Expedition, 1853—54.


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and Cairook with a Mojave

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above the rapids George Johnson had reached. 43 From that point the Explorer steamed into Black Canyon itself, but about a mile inside struck a submerged rock. The party retreated back to Eldorado for repairs. However, Ives, Captain Robinson, and a small crew rowed a skiff up through Black Canyon to the mouth of Vegas Wash, which they mistakenly believed to be the Virgin River. This was their high point of navigation. After reconnoitering, they returned down the river on March 12, the same day Hamblin and party were leaving Vegas Springs less than twenty-five miles away.44 HAMBLIN AND IVES

Back at the Explorer, repairs had been completed. Ives sent out a reconnaissance party to locate the Mormon road, and then began his descent of the river. On the fifteenth an Indian runner on the west bank reported fresh horse tracks. Ives concluded, correctly, that there were four Mormons from Vegas in the area. The next day, in Cottonwood 43 George Alonzo Johnson, " T h e Steamer General Jesep," Quarterly of the Society of California Pioneers, I X ( 1 9 3 2 ) , 108-18, as quoted in Woodward, Feud on the Colorado, 88, 91. 44 Ives, Report of the Colorado River, 8 5 - 8 7 . Ives at this point was aware of his approximate location relative to the M o r m o n road and settlement (Las V e g a s ) , but yet unaware of the Mormons in the area. I n addition Ireteba (p. 80) had become alarmed at reports of white men among the Paiutes who, reportedly, were planning to destroy the exploring party.


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Valley, they were "hallowed" from the west bank of the river by Thales Haskell. The Mormons and Gentiles had met.45 Haskell spent an uneasy night on the Explorer, hoping to hide his identity from his host. The men exchanged questions. Ives reported on his project — the exploration of the river. Haskell answered that the Mormons were so busy in the north and east that the government had nothing to fear from them on the Colorado, which without a joint Mormon-Indian effort, was basically true. 46 The next morning Ives delivered Haskell to the shore and continued down river. The Mormons were convinced that there was more to the expedition than exploration. Indians had reported to them that troops were coming up the river. So, to continue spying effectively, Hamblin sent Leavitt and Knight back to Las Vegas with all four horses, while he and Haskell proceeded south on foot. Their Indian friends warned them that the Mojaves were still hostile and dangerous, and that night, when they witnessed the firing of rockets by Ives, they became alarmed themselves, believing that Ives had rediscovered them and was warning his troops of their presence. (The actual fact was that Ives was simply trying to locate the whereabouts of Lieutenant Tipton and the packtrain, which also was the "invading army" the Indians reported coming up river.) 47 Nevertheless, the two Mormons retreated to Vegas and there learned that Leavitt and Knight had met and talked with Ives's reconnaissance party. Hamblin was convinced that Ives knew who they were and what they had been doing among the Indians. The weary and worried missionaries returned to southern Utah. 48 Ives's scouts reported a marked change in the attitude of the Mojaves, from friendliness to hostility. His reconnaissance party had met two of the Mormons, and Mormons were blamed for the change of behavior by the Indians. However, Mormons were only part of the picture. The Indians were also worried about the "invading army." Consequently, Ives told Cairook he was leaving their valley immediately and sought to 45 Ibid., 88. See also Hamblin, Journal, 34. Hamblin assigned Thales Haskell the dubious honor of being the "spy." 4S Hamblin, Journal, 35 and Ives, Report of the Colorado, 88-89. Both accounts report the meeting and agree on the context of the talks between Haskell and Ives. However, Haskell did not conceal his identity from Ives, nor did Ives allay Haskell's suspicions about his mission. See also Albert E. Smith, Thales Hastings Haskell (Salt Lake City, 1963), 28-29. In his own journal Haskell recounts the event in more detail. 47 Ives, Report of the Colorado, 88—89. T h e packtrain was used by Ives to explore overland from the Mojave villages to Fort Defiance. 48 Hamblin, Journal, 35-36. T h e Mormon settlements in southern U t a h in 1858 included Santa Clara and Washington.


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relieve the tension with assurances of the government's good will and with gifts.49 As soon as his packtrain arrived, Ives left the Explorer in the hands of the very able Captain Robinson, who took it down river. Ives himself headed east overland. His expedition had been a success. He had reached Vegas Wash in a skiff, he reported Black Canyon to be the high point of navigation, he correctly evaluated the Mormon "spying" among the Indians, and had countered the Mormon effort to turn the Indians against the government's "invading army." Ives left the river more at ease than did the Mormons. 50 AMASA LYMAN EXPEDITION

Although Colonel Kane was on his way to talk with Governor Cumming, Amasa M. Lyman proceeded south through Utah with a serious mission. He reported his efforts to Brigham Young on March 25: I expect to start next M o n d a y from C e d a r City with a c o m p a n y of twenty m e n to examine the Colorado Country a n d visit the Iats a n d other Indians in the country. Bro. H a m l i n [sic] has already preceded m e with some of the missionaries. . . . 5 1

Lyman selected nineteen men with good outfits to go with him. 52 He reported to Young again on the thirty-first that they would go as rapidly as they could and were in agreement with his "line of policy" as indicated in his March 21 address to the Saints; namely, that they would move to the south if necessary rather than submit to the army. 53 Leaving Cedar City on March 31, the party hurried to Santa Clara and there talked with Jacob Hamblin and enlisted the services of Ira 49 Ives, Report of the Colorado, 67, 89-90. Ives's relationship with the Mojave chiefs, Cairook and Ireteba, helped his expedition to succeed. O n e of the reports t h a t reached Ives about M o r m o n activity was that they had told the Indians to "burn the grass and r u n off the animals" of the packtrain, tactics similar to those used by Lot Smith and the Mormons around Fort Supply, Wyoming Territory. 80 Ibid., 90. O n e may rightly criticize Ives for his brief reference to the achievements of George A. Johnson a n d Lieutenant James White, who had preceded him up the Colorado as far as Pyramid Canyon. Yet one must also recognize t h a t Joseph C. Ives performed his own assignment with distinction. T h e m o u t h of Black Canyon was for many years the "practicable" high point of navigation of the Colorado River, even though during high water, freighting did go to Callville, above Vegas Wash, and to Rioville, at the m o u t h of the Virgin River. 51 Letter of Amasa M. Lyman to Brigham Young, M a r c h 25, 1858 (L.D.S. C h u r c h Historian's L i b r a r y ) . Lyman gives no details on Hamblin's trip to the Colorado. A second exploring party was canceled because peace negotiations seemed to be bringing results by the time L y m a n returned from his expedition. 52 Lyman, Journal Number 16, 111-12. T h e m e n were Amasa Lyman, Robert Clift, I r a Hatch, Freeman Tanner, J o h n D . Holladay, David H . Holladay, Marion Lyman, Henry G. Boyle, Walter E. Dodge, William G. Warren, Marchs L. Shepherd, C u n n i n g h a m Mathews, Howard T . Mills, Henry Jennings, Fred T . Perris, Taylor Crosby, N o r m a n Taylor, Harvey Clark, and William H . Shearman. 53 Letter of Amasa M . Lyman to Brigham Young, M a r c h 3 1 , 1858 (L.D.S. C h u r c h Historian's L i b r a r y ) .


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Hatch, Indian missionary, as interpreter and guide. They reached Las Vegas on the tenth of April and proceeded southward on a course parallel to the Colorado River, reaching it just below Black Canyon at Eldorado. With some difficulty they made their way down along the west bank of the river looking for pasturage, possible settlement sites, and some place to make a defensive stand should there be an army invading up the river. In Pyramid Canyon Lyman located such a place. He commented: Noticed one place in particular, about 10 ms from our c a m p this morning, which affords excellent facilities for c o m m a n d i n g the river, as the channel is, a t this point, on this (west) side of the stream, a n d the adjacent rocks a n d ravines afford protection a n d shelter for a great n u m ber of men. 5 4

In Mojave Valley the party found the Indians cautious, but not hostile. They approached the main tribes on Sunday, April 18, where Lyman and his men were impressed with the fine physiques of the Mojaves, as most early travelers had been.55 Having located a defensive site, seeing that the Indians were not hostile, and learning nothing of an invading army, Lyman continued west along the government trail toward Kingston, California, then swung north after two days and explored new territory north and east to Las Vegas.56 From there they returned to Cedar City via the settlements of Santa Clara, Washington, and Fort Harmony. They reached home May 7, 1858, and reported. SUMMARY AND CONCLUSIONS

By that time negotiations between Kane and Cumming were bringing results. The new governor agreed to come to Salt Lake City without the army. Perhaps war would be avoided. Fearful Mormon leaders still held out the threat of "scorched earth" and a "retreat southward," 57 but 54 Lyman, Journal Number 16, 117. Lyman does not identify the location of the "defense site" by name, but his description fits Pyramid Canyon. 55 Ibid., 118-19. 56 Ibid., 120-25. The primary purpose of this portion of the expedition was to locate settlement sites. It may have been, in part, to locate a parallel route for emigration to and from California; however, Lyman reported to President Young in his letter of March 25, 1858, that he believed "all" of the Saints were "returned." 67 Hafen and Hafen, Utah Expedition, 291. From the Crescent City Oracle under date of June 11, 1858, a report is given of the Mormons moving south when Governor Cumming and Colonel Kane arrived in Salt Lake Valley. Mormons were secretive about their plans, though "some conjectured they would go to Mexico, Sonora, or the valleys to the interior, to the south, they have recently been exploring, where sugar, cotton, rice and vines grow profusely." The above information was in part a result of the report from Lyman's expedition. Several other expeditions were also sent out — W. H. Dame, William Wall, and George W. Bean each directed such groups.


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the crisis had passed. Peace negotiations followed,58 and by June 14 Johnston's Army began to move. It reached Salt Lake City, peacefully, on the twenty-sixth and marched through the city as agreed. Soon Mormons began returning to their homes. The war was over, and the interlude on the Colorado came to an end. For the Mormons the Colorado River "experiences" clearly reveal their strategy for defense in the south. The first expedition sought Indian support, the second engaged in spying, and the third located a defensive site and an area into which some Mormons might flee, if necessary. All were designed to promote alliances with the Indians. As harrassment tactics, these maneuvers were successful. In addition a secondary benefit derived from the Mormons' more intimate knowledge of the Colorado River's navigability. Six years later they tried to develop the river into a major freighting line for Utah. 59 The poor Indians were given a taste of "things to come." Open hostilities brought troops in 1859 and the establishment of Camp Mojave in their beautiful valley. The white man's dominion became a fact. As for the government, Ives reported the conditions of the river quite accurately. He navigated his Explorer some thirty miles beyond Johnson's General Jesep. Although the real Virgin River, not Vegas Wash, became the high point of navigation on the Colorado, later shippers found, as had Ives, that Eldorado Canyon, below Explorer Rock, was the highest major freighting point on the river. Perhaps the one to benefit most directly from this venture was George A. Johnson. His expedition originated because of it. Mojave hostility during the next few years and mining at Eldorado and other areas adjacent to the river produced demands for his steamer services. His Colorado River Navigation Company expanded rapidly. Yet until 1864, Johnson's high point of navigation remained below Pyramid Canyon and the "succession of rapids" that had turned back this first explorer in 1858.

68 Ibid., 329, 342, and 343-44. Lazarus W. Powell and Ben McCullough were selected as peace commissioners on April 7, 1858. They arrived in Salt Lake City on June 7. By the twelfth they had reached an agreement with the church leaders and the "War" was over. 59 Leonard J. Arrington, "Inland to Zion," Arizona and the West, VIII (Autumn, 1966), 239-50.


Mormons, Crickets, and Gulls: A New Look At An Old Story BY WILLIAM HARTLEY

WnITHIN PICTURESQUE T E M P L E SQUARE in Salt Lake City stands the graceful bronze and stone Sea Gull Monument, commemorating a highly dramatic experience in Mormon pioneer history. Soon after Mormons reached the shores of Great Salt Lake, so the traditional story goes, their desperately needed first crops were invaded by vociferous black crickets. When the battle to save fields and gardens seemed doomed, the pioneers Mr. Hartley is a graduate teaching assistant in the History Department at Washington State University, Pullman.

Top of the Seagull Monument, standing in Temple Square. Photograph was furnished by the LDS Church Information Service.


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prayed earnestly for deliverance. Thereupon, miraculously, thousands of sea gulls suddenly appeared. In short order these divinely sent birds ate and disgorged huge quantities of crickets until the insects were eliminated, and the threatened Mormon crops were saved. The Cricket War of 1848, popularly known as the "Miracle of the Gulls," has assumed legendary characteristics in the folk history of the Rocky Mountain West.1 And like many frontier legends, this one invites scholarly probes into the past in order to determine how well the traditional story is supported by historical evidence now available to research. In assessing current accounts of the 1848 event, a number of questions must be considered. Were gulls and crickets inhabiting the Great Salt Lake area prior to the Mormon arrival in 1847? Did the gulls actually prevent major destruction of the Mormon crops? Was the event considered miraculous by contemporary observers in their letters and diaries? How unique was the encounter when compared with the natural history of the Utah area? Current historical research has produced some unexpected answers to these questions while revealing some new problems with the traditional story. PRE-1848 GULLS AND CRICKETS

The Cricket War of 1848 occurred during the Mormons' initial year in the Great Salt Lake Valley. A vanguard company of pioneers first entered the area on July 22, 1847, followed by Brigham Young two days later. Other Mormon companies arrived soon thereafter, the largest emigration coming in September. Young soon returned to Iowa, leaving a High Council Presidency in charge of the new settlements during the winter of 1847-48 and through the cricket attacks of the subsequent spring. These pioneers were new to the area but gulls and crickets were not. Their pre-Mormon presence is positively established by trapper and explorer records kept during the preceding decades. As early as 1825 British fur trapper Peter Skene Ogden noticed sea gulls near the present Utah-Idaho border, according to his May 5 diary entry: O u r course This day was west over a fine Plain Covered with Buffaloes & thousands of Small Gulls the latter was a Strange Sight to us I presume some large body of water near at h a n d at present u n k n o w n to us all. 2 1 Austin E. Fife, "Popular Legends of the Mormons," California Folklore Quarterly, I (April, 1942), 114. 2 David E. Miller, ed., "Peter Skene Ogden's Journal of His Expedition to Utah, 1825," Utah Historical Quarterly, XX (April, 1952), 171-72.


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Years later the energetic American explorer, John C. Fremont, reported the presence of gulls near the Great Salt Lake in his journal entry for September 12, 1843: "We had to-night a supper of sea gulls, which [Kit] Carson killed near the lake." 3 These two notations show that sea gulls were not strangers to that region when the Mormons came. Crickets were but slightly mentioned in early diaries. Again, Ogden's journal specifically notes their presence not far from the Great Salt Lake on May 2, 1825: "As for insects we have no Cause to complain, Fleas Wood lice Spiders & crickets by millions." 4 There is no record, however, of gulls attacking crickets anywhere in the Rocky Mountain West prior to 1848.5 The very first Mormons to enter the Valley in 1847 were impressed by the quantity of large crickets they encountered. "The ground seems literally alive with very large black crickets crawling around up grass and bushes," commented William Clayton.6 Orson Pratt described crickets the size of a man's thumb. 7 Brigham Young received a message from the vanguard party similarly descriptive: "In many places the grasses, rushes, etc. are 10 feet high, but no mire. Mammoth crickets abound in the borders of the Valley." 8 Crickets were still busy in the Valley as late in the summer as August 29, when John Steele wrote that his daily labors included "planting buckwheat, irrigating crops, killing crickets, etc." 9 It is notable, however, that these pioneer diarists failed to mention the presence of gulls before the birds' impressive appearance in the spring of 1848. ADVENT OF THE CRICKET PLAGUE

Throughout the winter of 1847-48 nearly 1,700 Mormons prepared the dry Valley soil for cultivation. Many lived at the Old Fort, a walledin series of cabins forming the nucleus of the community later designated Salt Lake City. Other pioneers had settled at the present sites of Kays3 Q u o t e d by Vasco M . T a n n e r , "A C h a p t e r on the Natural History of the Great Basin, 1800 to 1855," The Great Basin Naturalist, I (July, 1939), 46. 4 Miller, "Peter Skene Ogden's J o u r n a l , " U.H.Q., X X , 170. 5 T h e r e is some evidence t h a t such a phenomenon occurred in another area of the West a century earlier. According to a novelized history of Lower California, Fathers Salvatierra and U g a r t e witnessed a successful attack by gulls upon grasshoppers which had threatened crops of the newly founded Comondu Mission in the early eighteenth century. See Antonio de Fierro Blanco, Journey of the Flame, trans., Walter de Steiguer (New York, 1933), 170—76. 6 William Clayton, William Clayton's Journal: A Daily Record of the Journey of the Original Company of "Mormon" Pioneers . . . (Salt Lake City, 1921), 3 1 1 . 7 Orson Pratt, "Extracts from the Journal of Orson Pratt," The Utah Genealogical and Historical Magazine, X V I I (January, 1926), 211. 8 Claire Noall, Intimate Disciple: A Portrait of Willard Richards (Salt Lake City, 1957), 538. 9 J o h n Steele, "Extracts from the Journal of J o h n Steele," U.H.Q., V I (January, 1933), 18-19.


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ville and Bountiful and along the Weber River. Fences enclosed more than 5,000 acres, about one-fifth of which was sown with grain. A mild winter allowed for an early planting. 10 Harvest prospects were bright by the next spring. On April 16, 1848, John Steele rejoiced that "green stuff is coming very fast," and that his "wheat, corn, beans and peas are all up and looking grand and grass is 6 inches high." 11 In a June 9 letter the Valley leaders advised Brigham Young that prior to the arrival of the crickets a large amount of spring crops had been planted and had been doing well.12 By late May, however, tragedy struck. Completely unexpected by the Mormon farmers, huge armies of crickets attacked the succulent new plants. John Taylor noted crickets in some fields as early as May 22. 13 Mrs. Lorenzo Dow Young despaired over their destructive appearance as part of her May 27 entry in her husband's diary: W e have grappled with the frost. . . but today to o u r utter astonishment, the crickets came by millions, sweeping everything before them. T h e y first attacked a p a t c h of beans for us a n d in twenty minutes there was not a vestige of t h e m to be seen. T h e y next swept over peas, then c a m e into o u r g a r d e n ; took everything clean. W e went out with brush a n d undertook to drive them, b u t they were too strong for us. 1 4

Night brought killer frosts and daylight activated vicious crickets. The psychological damage caused by these dual enemies became apparent the next day to Eliza R. Snow: "This morning's frost in unison with the ravages of the crickets for a few days past produces many sighs, and occasionally some long faces." 15 That same day, May 28, Isaac Haight matter-of-f actly described his losses: Frost again this morning. Things killed in the garden such as beans, cucumbers, mellons, pumpkins, a n d squash. C o r n h u r t some a n d some wheat killed a n d the crickets are injuring the crops. 1 6

Mrs. Lorenzo Young's descriptions that day are similar: 10

Orson F. Whitney, History of Utah (Salt Lake City, 1892), I, 375-77. Steele, "Journal of John Steele," U.H.Q., VI, 21-22. 12 Quoted in Pauline Udall Smith, Captain Jefferson Hunt of the Mormon Battalion (Salt Lake City, 1958), 308. 13 Dale L. Morgan, The Great Salt Lake (Indianapolis, 1947), 213-14. 14 J. Cecil Alter and Robert J. Dwyer, eds., Journal and Biography of Lorenzo Dow Young, U.H.Q., XIV (1946), 166. 15 Eliza R. Snow, Eliza R. Snow, An Immortal: Selected Writings (Salt Lake City 1947), 364-65. 16 Isaac C Haight, "Biographical Sketch and Diary of Isaac Chauncey Haight, 18131862" (typescript, Brigham Young University), 49. 11


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The horror of crickets engulfing fields, barns, houses, clothes, and cupboards continued day after day. Mrs. Lorenzo Young began to fear for the future outcome: T o d a y [May 29] they have destroyed 3 / 4 of a n acre of squashes, o u r flax, two acres of millet a n d our rye, a n d are now to work in our wheat. W h a t will be the result we k n o w not. 1 8

Another female diarist, Mrs. Patty Sessions, wrote on May 30 of her son's apparently desperate efforts: "Mr. Sessions has gone to the farm to keep the crickets off the crops; they are taking all before them that they come to. The frost killed a good deal." 19 That the quantity of crickets destroying the vegetation was overwhelming is clearly shown in John Steele's "catch-up" journal entry which summarized at least a week of destruction: Sunday, J u n e 4th, there is a great excitement in c a m p . T h e r e has come a frost which took beans, corn a n d w h e a t a n d nearly everything, a n d to help m a k e the disaster complete, the crickets came by t h e thousands of tons. 2 0

Although Isaac Haight did not admit disaster, his mood that same Sabbath was similarly gloomy: Q u i t e cold a n d very dry. Crops begin to suffer for w a n t of rain. T h e crickets destroyed some crops a n d a r e eating the heads off the grain as soon as it heads out. T h e prospects for grain are discouraging. 2 1

This anxiety caused some Mormon leaders and regular church members to doubt Brigham Young's inspiration in selecting such a place for settlement. Haight perceived that "Many of the Saints begin to think of leaving the valley for fear of starvation." 22 John Steele recorded that "the cry is now raised, 'we cannot live here, away to California,' and the faith of many were shaken." 23 Other farmers stated their intentions of leaving for the Eastern States or Oregon. Even John Young, a counselor in the governing High Council Presidency, urged that an express be sent 17

Alter and Dwyer, Lorenzo Dow Young, U.H.Q., XIV, 166. Ibid. 19 Quoted from a diary kept by Mrs. Sessions in "Gull Monument," Improvement XVII (November, 1913), 70. 20 Steele, "Journal of John Steele," U.H.Q., VI, 22. 21 Haight, "Biographical Sketch and Diary of Isaac Chauncey Haight," 49. 22 Ibid. 23 Steele, "Journal of John Steele," U.H.Q., VI, 22. 18

Era,


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to w a r n Brigham Young not to bring more Mormons to the Valley for fear of starvation. 24 Subsequent entomological research regarding the characteristics of the M o r m o n cricket justifies the fears felt by these pioneers. T h e black insects, technically identified as Anabrus simplex, measure 1.25 inches in length and are wingless. They generally inhabit the mountain country but occasionally become plentiful enough to descend into the valleys in outbreaks which last from two to six years. Traveling in bands the size of a city block to a square mile or more, these sluggish insects move from one-eighth to almost two miles per day. Relishing garden crops, small fruits, and grains, they also are cannibalistic with regards to their dead or injured fellows, and they have been seen consuming leather hamasses and large rattlesnakes, evergreen trees, and sagebrush. 25 Every conceivable defensive tactic was tried by the farmers to fight this "army of famine and despair." 2 6 In an account written nine years later, Jesse N. Smith said that initially water was turned into ditches surrounding the fields. This method, however, proved ineffective because "it seemed impossible to drown them, as they would recover after being a long time under water." Then, he added, the pioneers took advantage of the crickets' cannibalism. Since they "showed some preference for the dead or disabled of their own number," crickets were killed at the borders of the fields to keep other crickets fed. 27 Sticks, clubs, brooms, brushes, and willows were used to knock the black creatures off the plants. Fires were built into which the crickets were driven. Some Mormons discovered that the insects disliked certain noises, so women and children went into the fields with bells and sticks and tin pans to scare the black villains. 28 A five-year-old girl was given a wooden mallet with which to smash crickets. 29 Possibly the oddest technique was tried by John Young who, with his brother, pulled a rope back and forth across the tops of the grain to knock off the climbing crickets before they could reach the heads of the wheat. 3 0 Initially ignorant of 24 "Journal History" (Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints Historian's Library, Salt Lake C i t y ) , J u n e 9, 1848. 25 Frank T. Cowan, Life Habits, History, and Control of the Mormon Cricket, U.S. Department of Agriculture Technical Bulletin No. 161 (Washington, D . C , 1929), 2 6 - 2 7 . 26 Whitney, History of Utah, I, 377. 27 Jesse N. Smith, Journal of Jesse N. Smith: The Life Story of a Mormon Pioneer, 18341906 (Salt Lake City, [1953]), 13. 28 Sarah P. Rich, "Journal of Sarah D e Armon Pea Rich" (typescript, Brigham Young University), 82. ,••-'•^ M a n o m a s Andrus, "Biography of Manomas Lavina Gibson Andrus: 1842-1922" (typescript, Brigham Young University), 2. 30 J o h n R. Young, Memoirs of John R. Young, Utah Pioneer, 1847 (Salt Lake City, 1920), 148.


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cricket habits, the pragmatic pioneers soon claimed to be gaining a "fund of knowledge" about the enemy. 3 1 C O U N T E R - A T T A C K BY T H E

GULLS

The harrassed farmers "prayed and fought and fought and prayed" for almost two weeks against the dumpy crickets — which some Mormons jokingly described as a cross between the spider and the buffalo.32 It is difficult to pinpoint exactly when the California gulls first arrived to assist, but on June 9 the Valley leaders described the dramatic event in a letter to Brigham Young: "The sea gulls have come in large flocks from the lake and sweep the crickets as they go; it seems the hand of the Lord is in our favor." 33 Daily the gulls flew to the Mormon fields to consume crickets. Twelve days later another letter to Brigham Young noted the continuing activity of the crickets despite the gulls: "Crickets are still quite numerous and busy eating but between the gulls and our own efforts and the growth of our crops we shall raise much grain in spite of them." 34 Patriarch John Smith remembered that the gulls "came every morning for about three weeks, when their mission was apparently ended, and they ceased coming." 35 It appears that the 1848 cricket invasion lasted for at least a month and probably longer. In that time crickets had eaten grain clean two or three times in some fields. The awesome spectacle of innumerable screaming sea gulls, filling the sky and shading earth from sun, seemed at first to portend a third plague for the Mormon crops. John Smith left this description: The first I knew of the gulls, I heard their sharp cry. Upon looking up I beheld what appeared like a vast flock of pigeons coming from the Northwest. It was about three o'clock in the afternoon. . . . There must have been thousands of them. Their coming was like a great cloud; and when they passed between us and the sun, a shadow covered the field. I could see gulls settling for more than a mile around us.36

Initially the gulls were feared because their presence in the Valley was strange to many of the new settlers. Summarizing the history of the Mormon church up to 1850, Thomas L. Kane that year told the Pennsylvania Historical Society that gulls "were before strangers to the valley," 31

"Journal History," June 2 1 , 1848. Sir Richard F. Burton, The City of the Saints, and Across the Rocky Mountains fornia, ed., Fawn M. Brodie (New York, 1963), 314. 33 Smith, Captain Jefferson Hunt, 136-37. 34 "Journal History," June 21, 1848. 35 Ibid., June 9, 1848. 36 Ibid. 32

to Cali-


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an opinion he must have gained from a Valley resident.37 Likewise, a Valley letter published in the Little Rock, Arkansas, Democrat in 1849 claimed that the "mountain men" familiar with the Great Salt Lake area said that gulls had never been seen there prior to 1848.38 Needless to say, such a belief would enhance the drama of the gulls' appearance that year. The California gulls, now regular inhabitants of the Great Salt Lake region during spring and summer months, 39 amazed the beleaguered pioneers not only by the amount of crickets they killed but also by the unusual manner of consumption. The gulls would feed on crickets until full, drink some water, and then regurgitate prior to consuming more crickets. Therefore it appeared that their main objective was to kill crickets rather than to feed on them. George Q. Cannon, for example, received such an impression after walking along water ditches where he saw "lumps of these crickets vomited up by those gulls." 40 To ornithologists, however, such vomiting by gulls is not unusual. Responding to Cannon's descrip7

Thomas L. Kane, "The Mormons," U.G.&H.M., II (July, 1911), 122. Reprinted by Deseret News (Salt Lake City), June 15, 1850. 'Arthur C. Bent, Life Histories of North American Gulls and Terns (Washington, D . C , 124. 3 Whitney, History of Utah, I, 377. 3

1921

"Miracle of the Gulls," painted by Jack Vigos, is in the possession of the Daughters of Utah Pioneers, Salt Lake City.


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tion, gull expert F. E. L. Beale judged that "these 'lumps of crickets' were undoubtedly 'pellets' of indigestible parts habitually disgorged by the birds." 41 CONTEMPORARY R E S P O N S E TO THE G U L L S

These Mormon pioneers, alone in the Great Basin wilderness, devout in their demanding faith, and convinced that they were God's modern Chosen People, attributed much of their experience as a religious body to the Divine Will. Thus in 1848 some, but not all, who witnessed the Cricket War felt that God had performed a miracle in their behalf by sending the gulls. As noted earlier, the June 9 letter to Brigham Young expressed belief that "the hand of the Lord" guided the gulls.42 That such a belief became popular in a short time is shown in a most descriptive diary entry penned late in 1848. Henry Bigler, a member of the Mormon Battalion returning from Mexican War duty in California, was impressed by the story of the Cricket War he heard immediately upon arriving in Salt Lake City: [Sept. 28] T h e whole face of the e a r t h I a m told was literally covered with large black crickets t h a t seemed to the farmers t h a t they [the crickets] would eat u p a n d completely destroy their entire crops h a d it not been for t h e gulls t h a t c a m e in large flocks a n d devoured the crickets. I a m told t h a t the gulls would feast themselves o n t h e crickets to t h e full a n d straight way disgorge t h e m a n d begin again a n d thus they did destroy the crickets a n d save the crops a n d . . . all looked u p o n the gulls as a G o d send, indeed, all acknowledged the h a n d of the L o r d was in it, t h a t H e h a d sent the white gulls by scores of thousands to save their crops. 4 3

Various pioneers familiar with the 1848 episode likewise affirmed, years later, that the gulls had been divinely sent. Typical is this 1853 tribute by Thomas S. Terry: "God who was ever ready to bless his Faithfull Children, Sent the Gulls, who was timely Saviours in our behalf, and Saved our Crops from total ruin." 44 Immediate reverence for the gulls was expressed in laws adopted to protect them. A number of documents indicate that it was forbidden to shoot, kill, or annoy gulls with firearms.45 Bigler wrote that this protec41 W. L. McAtee and F. E. L. Beale, Some Common Game, Aquatic, and Rapacious Birds in Relation to Man, U.S. Department of Agriculture Bulletin No. 497 (Washington D.C, 1912), 22. 42 Smith, Captain Jefferson Hunt, 136—37. 43 Henry W. Bigler, "Diary of Henry W. Bigler, 1846-1850" (typescript, Brigham Young University), I, 106. 44 Thomas S. Terry, "Diary of Thomas Sirls Terry: 1825-1877" (typescript, Brigham Young University), 11. 45 Rich, "Journal of Sarah Rich," 82; Kane, "The Mormons," U.G.&H.M., II, 123.


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tion was afforded because "all" the pioneers looked upon the gulls as a "God send." 4 6 T h e "Miracle of the Gulls" has been a popular faith-promoting story in Mormon circles for a half-dozen generations. T h e first mention of the "miracle" in a Mormon general conference was m a d e by Apostle Orson Hyde on September 24, 1853, when he asserted that the gulls h a d been agents prepared by the hand of providence. 4 7 T w o years later the Deseret News offered this encouragement for M o r m o n farmers then suffering a devastating grasshopper plague: We do not feel. . . the least apprehension for the final result of the present destruction. . . . As for the Saints we are perfectly aware that through faith and obedience they can prevail in the grasshopper war, at least as well as they did in the cricket war of 1848.48

Similarly, versions currently found in such M o r m o n periodicals as the Improvement Era and the Instructor and in the standard church histories by B. H . Roberts and Joseph Fielding Smith positively assert the miraculous nature of the event. 49 P R O B L E M S W I T H T H E TRADITIONAL A C C O U N T

Surprisingly, a number of the contemporary sources which should have contained accounts of the "Miracle of the Gulls" make no mention of it. Various memoirs and autobiographies, for example, retrospectively tell of the cricket invasion in 1848 but say nothing of the gulls. Also, all of the diarists quoted earlier for the day-by-day account of the cricket advances — Haight, Snow, Steele, Sessions, and Mrs. Young — ceased making diary entries during the first week of June, when the crickets were at their worst, and then said nothing about the gulls when their diaries were later reactivated! For example, Eliza R. Snow's next diary reports were dated June 10 and J u n e 15; they bemoan the general agricultural situation but completely ignore the newly arrived sea gulls. 50 Similarly unusual is the non-mention of gulls by the outspoken apostle, Parley P. Pratt. Neither his 1848 letters to his brother Orson in England nor his 46

Bigler, "Diary of Henry W. Bigler," 107. Orson Hyde, "Discourse, September 24, 1853," Journal of Discourses (26 vols., Liverpool, England, 1 8 5 4 - 1 8 8 6 ) , I I , 114. 48 " T h e Crops and the Grasshoppers," Deseret News, M a y 23, 1855. 49 B. H . Roberts, A Comprehensive History of The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints (6 vols., Salt Lake City, 1930), I I I , 331-33. Joseph Fielding Smith, Essentials in Church History: A History of the Church from the Birth of Joseph Smith to the Present Time (1922) . . . (Salt Lake City, 1960), 4 6 7 - 6 8 . 50 Snow, Eliza R. Snow. 365. 47


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later autobiography mention gull attacks on crickets, even though Parley witnessed •— and lamented in these sources — the 1848 difficulties. 51 Likewise unusual is the lack of mention of the "miracle" in the official Mormon newspaper in England, the Millennial Star. Not only Parley Pratt's letters, but all Valley reports reaching the Star painted an unduly optimistic picture of 1848 Valley agricultural conditions. Very slight reference to cricket damage plus a passing remark printed in 1849 about the gulls is all that the English Mormons were told about the Cricket W a r of 1848. Some understanding of this silence about gulls comes when the actual significance of these birds for the ensuing 1848 harvest is evaluated. Was it a successful harvest? If so, how much did the gulls contribute to that success?

7jB|

The Seagull Monument, erected on September 13, 1913, is the work of Mahonri M. Young.

O n the one h a n d are found glowing production reports like those sent to England by Parley Pratt. I n September, for example, he wrote that a very successful harvest h a d been produced: " W h e a t harvest com51

Parley P. Pratt, Autobiography of Parley P. Pratt (Salt Lake City, 1938).


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menced early in July, and continued till August. Winter and spring wheat have both done well, some ten thousand bushels have been raised." He added that a surplus of ten to twenty thousand bushels was expected.52 A more moderate estimate comes from Henry Bigler: "Their crops were prity much harvested. . . . Buck wheat was good, potatoes fine, but the corn crop was light and fodder short." 53 On the other hand are more pessimistic reports. Isaac Haight, optimistic in July, wrote that his final wheat harvest was poor.54 John Steele's harvest consisted of a mess pan full of corn ears.55 A. J. Allen produced but five bushels of wheat from two acres.56 Chapman Duncan wrote five years later that the 1848 harvest had been light due to lack of irrigation.57 Official Mormon church reports, more than any other source, indicate that the 1848 harvest was far from successful. They objectively discuss the factors which, in addition to the crickets, were to blame. The High Council Presidency, in evaluating the Valley's agricultural situation for Brigham Young on July 21, 1848, rated the gulls as helpers but certainly not as rescuers: T h e brethren have been busy for some time watering their wheat a n d as far as it is done the wheat looks well a n d the heads are long a n d large. T h e crickets are still quite numerous a n d busy eating, b u t between the gulls and our own efforts and the growth of our crops we shall raise m u c h grain in spite of them. O u r vines, beans a n d peas are mostly destroyed by frost a n d the crickets; but m a n y of us have m o r e seed a n d are now busy replanting. . . . Some of our corn has been destroyed, but m a n y large fields look very well and corn is growing very fast. 58

This letter identifies four factors, determinants of the harvest, which are important for any assessment of the role played by the gulls. Individual pioneer actions, in addition to gull efforts, are credited for controlling crickets. Also, frost initially was every bit as damaging as the crickets, a climatic misfortune which the gulls could not effect in any way. In addition specific crops such as corn and beans were hurt more than others by crickets. Undoubtedly individual farmers responded to the gulls according to the amount of cricket damage their fields did or did not receive and to the final amount produced by their own fields. Another factor noted in 52

The Latter-day Saints' Millennial Star, XI (Liverpool, England, 1849), 21. Bigler, "Diary of Henry W. Bigler," 106. 54 Haight, "Biographical Sketch and Diary of Isaac Chauncey Haight," 49. 65 Steele, "Journal of John Steele," U.H.Q., VI, 28. 56 A. J. Allen, "Diary of A. J. Allen" (microfilm, Brigham Young University), 9. 57 Chapman Duncan, "Biography of Chapman Duncan, 1812-1900" (typescript, Brigham Young University), 1849 comments. 58 "Journal History," June 21, 1848. 53


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other sources was insufficient irrigation, which also reduced the harvest possibilities. The gulls were completely slighted in a more significant letter written the next year. The first Valley epistle officially sent by the First Presidency of the Mormon church to the scattered non-Utah Mormons included a thorough evaluation of the 1848 harvests. Negative factors received the greatest emphasis: The brethren had succeeded in sowing and planting an extensive variety of seeds at all seasons, from January to July, on a farm about twelve miles in length, and from one to six in width, including the city plot. Most of their early crops were destroyed, in the month of May, by crickets and frost, which continued occasionally until June. . . . The brethren were not sufficiently numerous to fight the crickets, irrigate the crops, and fence the farms of their extensive planting, consequently they suffered heavy losses.59

It must not be overlooked that this official summary of Valley experiences from the first arrival of the pioneers until 1849 nowhere mentions the gulls, despite prominent notice paid the cricket plague! According to this evaluation, the crop losses were severe. Therefore, the actual physical benefit brought by the gulls could not have been as extensive as is popularly believed. REPEAT PERFORMANCES SINCE

1848

The Cricket War of 1848 is sometimes confused in pioneer writings with similar occurrances during the subsequent two years, when the gulls were more responsible for halting the crickets. Both gulls and crickets arrived earlier in 1849. Plover, a specie of shore bird native to the Great Salt Lake area, arrived before the gulls, according to a general church epistle dated April 9, 1849: The month of March and April, to the 4th, was very mild and pleasant, and many small crickets have made their appearance, but large flocks of plover have already come among them, and are making heavy inroads in their ranks. 60

By June 6 gulls also were attacking the crickets.61 Two days later Brigham Young and others were reported to be "busy killing crickets, building fences, etc." 62 According to Thomas L. Kane the early arrival of the gulls "saved the wheat crop from all harm whatever" in 1849. (iii 89

Millennial Star, X I ( 1 8 4 9 ) , 227. "Journal History," April 9, 1849. "Ibid., J u n e 6, 1849. 62 Ibid., J u n e 8, 1849. 53 Kane, " T h e Mormons," U.G.&H.M., 60

I I , 123.


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Crickets invaded the Valley again in 1850.64 They were allied with grasshopper hordes in 1855, a year in which gulls again were on the attack. 65 The "Journal History" compiled by the Mormon Church Historian's Office contains a number of newspaper articles describing gull and cricket activities in Utah and the western United States. Millions of crickets, for example, invaded Rush Valley, Utah, in 1904.66 Mandan, North Dakota, reported thousands of sea gulls in the grain fields in 1921 attacking grasshoppers.67 A Montana report in 1924 said that gull flocks numbering from 4,000 to 5,000 birds preyed upon grasshoppers for more than six weeks.68 Colorado reported thousands of gulls attacking grasshoppers in 1926.69 An estimated one million gulls were feeding on Saskatchewan grasshoppers in 1933.70 Four years later gulls feasted on Mormon crickets in Oregon. 71 An estimated 5,000 to 8,000 gulls raided crickets southeast of Tooele City in 1937 during a cricket invasion which lasted until the next year.72 More recently, gulls battled crickets in Oregon in 1947 73 and in Utah in 1952.74 In 1848 the Mormon farmers felt that their experience was singularly unique. But these numerous examples suggest that encounters between gulls and crickets are common to the natural history of the western United States, REEVALUATION

Current research alters the traditional sea gull-cricket story in many respects while substantiating its basic facts. As a result the following information should be taken into account in credible versions of the dramatic struggle: (1) The gulls were not strangers to the Valley. Records before and since show that various types of gulls, including the California gull involved in 1848, regularly inhabit the Great Salt Lake 64 James E. Talmage, " W e r e They Crickets or Locusts and W h e n Did They C o m e ? " I.E., X I I I (December, 1909), 9 7 - 1 0 8 . 65 Deseret News, May 23, 1855. 66 "Feasting on Crickets," I.E., I l l (September, 1904), 890. 67 Salt Lake Tribune, August 25, 1921. 68 Gazette (Billings, M o n t a n a ) , August 26, 1924. 69 Salt Lake Tribune, August 17, 1926. 70 " J o u r n a l History," February 9, 1935. 71 Salt Lake Tribune, J u n e 2 1 , 1937. 72 C J. Sorenson and H . F. Thornley, " M o r m o n Crickets and Their Control in U t a h Since 1923," Proceedings of the Utah Academy of Sciences, Arts and Letters (Salt Lake City, 1938), XV, 63-70. 73 Deseret News, M a y 23, 1947. 74 Ibid., J u n e 9, 1952.


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(2)

(3)

(4)

(5)

(6)

area. These birds are natural enemies of various insects, including crickets. Gulls habitually regurgitate the indigestible parts of insects they have swallowed. This action was unusual to the pioneers but standard eating procedure for gulls. Gulls did not arrive until after severe cricket damage had occurred. Even after the gulls had been "feasting" on crickets for two weeks, the insects still were "quite numerous and busy eating." In 1848 the Mormon crops were seriously damaged by three ruthless enemies — frost, crickets, and drought — and the gulls dealt with only one of these. The "miraculousness" of the event was not clearly recognized by contemporaries. The Mormon church's First Presidency was notably silent concerning any "Miracle of the Gulls" in its letters. Likewise, the Millennial Star never told the English Saints about such a miracle. Diarists who detailed the cricket advance did not mention the gulls. Since 1848 gulls frequently have been on the wing to feast on crickets and other insects, making the 1848 encounter hardly unique.

Like numerous other popular accounts of important and unusual historical events, the details of the Cricket War of 1848 over the years have been oversimplified, improved upon, and given somewhat legendary characteristics. The fact remains, nonetheless, that the 1848 Mormon pioneers would have suffered more than they did, had not the gulls come to their aid. Physically, the gulls helped avert a complete agricultural disaster; the amount of crickets which thousands of gulls could consume in two or three weeks would be a staggering figure. And the birds did relieve hardpressed farmers from ardous toil against the crickets. More importantly perhaps, the gulls provided mental and emotional rejuvenation. Undoubtedly threats of leaving for California were diminished by the sudden appearance of the gull flocks. At a nadir of discouragement the farmers must have felt their burden lightened and their hopes at least temporarily raised by their unexpected ally. The "Miracle of the Gulls" story remains appropriate as an expression of the faith held by Mormon pioneers and their descendants. To them, God can and does personally intervene in the everyday affairs of


Crickets and Gulls

239

men when faith is exercised. Whether or not the gulls performed some type of mental or physical "miracle" under God's direction in 1848 is not as important as is the confidence Mormons feel that God could so act if He willed it. In the final analysis it is this belief, as well as the benefit gulls have periodically provided Utahns, that is honored by the impressive Sea Gull Monument. 75 75 T h e Sea Gull M o n u m e n t was erected on T e m p l e Square on September 13, 1913. It is the work of M a h o n r i M . Young, a grandson to Brigham Young.

T H E SEA G U L L S A N D T H E

CRICKETS

F r o m out the foothills all along T h e crickets swept, a countless throng, T h e verdure lay before them green, Behind 'twas like a fire-swept scene. And as they neared the fields of grain T h e settlers fought them might and main, Till unavailing efforts gave T h e proof that none their crops could save. L o ! then, a wonder in the skies T o them glad vision brought surprise! Above the low horizon's bound, W i t h wings all fluttering round and round, I n cloud-like flocks, the sea gulls flew, I n their migration strange a n d n e w ; And myriads over all the land, As if they came at God's command, Sought for the crickets, as was meet, And ate as though compelled to eat, And ate, disgorged, and ate, till then Disgorged, they ate, and ate again; Till, at the sunset, they took flight And o'er the lake passed out of sight. Again, each morning they returned, As if about the task concerned Of clearing all the land so clean T h a t not a cricket could be seen. A n d to this day, the Saints believe T h e sea gulls came here to achieve A rescue from impending woes Of famine, t h a t these insect foes Most surely would have m a d e , that day, H a d not God's power swept them away. And so the law's protecting care Gives to the gulls a n ample share; And gratitude we give most fair These winged pilgrims of the air. J. L. Townsend (Excerpts from a poem published in the Era, V I I I [July, 1905], 641.)

Improvement


Iron mining. Photograph from the L. F. Rains Collection.

The Changing Impact

Of Mining On the Economy of Twentieth Century Utah BY J A M E S B. ALLEN


I

opposition to Patrick Edward Connor's efforts to promote mining in Utah, by 1900 the mining industry had become a major force in the economic life of the state. In that year Utah produced nearly $17 million worth of non-ferrous metals and supplied 5 per cent of America's gold, 16.1 per cent of its silver, and 17.7 per cent of its lead. 1 In addition 8.3 per cent of the total labor force, and 12.6 per cent of the non-agricultural labor force worked at the exploitation of the state's mineral resources. Of all major occupational groups, mining followed only agriculture and manufacturing in total number of employees.2 The influence of mining in Utah extended far beyond mere numbers of workers. Initial development had brought money into the territory and helped stimulate immigration and colonization. Money received in wages promoted the spread of a market economy through the demand for goods and services required by employees. The need for various accouterments to mining — including picks and shovels, haulage cars, wagons, dynamite, and transportation services — spurred the growth of such important industries as lumbering, blacksmithing, manufacturing, banking, and various retail trades. In addition technical developments in processing laid the foundation for further mining development, especially in lead, copper, and zinc, and the contribution of these metals to the state would become immeasureably greater than that of gold or silver. As Leonard Arrington has written: "It was almost as if the earth itself was one great bonanza from which man was able to obtain an abundance of the things he needed and desired." 3 The vast mineral wealth of Utah, however, had scarcely been tapped. Resources included over 200 minerals, some 35 of which are considered major minerals and are now regularly produced in the state.4 The eastern portion of Utah was rich in fuels, and huge coal fields covered some 15,000 square miles, or about 18 per cent of the total area of the state. 5 N SPITE OF EARLY MORMON

Dr. Allen, associate professor of history at Brigham Young University, presented this paper at the Seventeenth Annual Meeting of the U t a h State Historical Society, September 20, 1969, in Park City, U t a h . T h e author expresses appreciation to members of his 1969 summer graduate Seminar in the M o u n t a i n West, and especially Mr. Robert L. Hales, for assistance in collecting d a t a for this paper. 1 University of U t a h , Bureau of Economic and Business Research, 1969 Statistical Abstract of Utah (Salt Lake City, 1969), 208. (Hereafter cited as 1969 Statistical Abstract.) 2 Leonard J. Arrington, The Changing Economic Structure of the Mountain West, 18501950 (Logan, U t a h , 1963), 33, 44. Unless otherwise noted, all decennial employment'figures and percentages to 1950 are taken from this monumental study. 3 Leonard J. Arrington, "Abundance From the E a r t h : T h e Beginnings of Commercial Mining in U t a h , " Utah Historical Quarterly, 31 (Summer, 1963), 219. 4 E l R o y Nelson, Utah's Economic Patterns (Salt Lake City, 1956), 80. EIRoy Nelson and Osmond L. Harline, Utah's Changing Economic Patterns 1964 (Salt Lake City, 1964), 18. 5 U.S., D e p a r t m e n t of the Interior, Geological Survey, Mineral and Water Resources of Utah (Washington, D . C , 1969), 39. (Hereafter cited as Mineral and Water Resources.)


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Utah became the leading coal-producing state west of the Mississippi.6 Large oil and natural gas resources have been developed in recent years, and extensive oil shale deposits provide opportunity for significant future development. Other important bituminous substances include Gilsonite, the only major deposits of which are found in Utah, 7 and various rock asphalts. The most important metallic resource in the state is copper, and 18 per cent of the nation's supply is taken from the huge open-pit mine at Bingham. Utah is third in the nation in the production of gold. Lead, zinc, and silver deposits are known in various parts of the state and iron is also widespread, although the major deposits are in Iron County. The most exciting new development has been the discovery in Millard County of the world's largest known beryllium deposits.8 Other major Utah metals include manganese, molybedenum, uranium, and vanadium. Tungsten, titanium, mercury, thorium, and the rare earths also exist in important quantities, but no significant extraction has yet begun. Among non-metallic minerals, Utah holds valuable, although undeveloped, quantities of alunite and barite as well as important deposits of clays and shales used in construction work. In 1951 eighteen of Utah's twenty-nine counties produced gem stones and the state led the nation in the production of obsidian, was fourth in output of petrified wood, and sixth in producing agate. 9 Utah's gypsum deposits are among the largest in the United States, and the state produces significant quantities of limestone, dolomite, phosphate, saline minerals, sand and gravel, silica, and various kinds of building stone. The process of extracting all these minerals has built an industry which over the past century has produced over $8 billion worth of products. The value of these minerals jumped from $16.70 per capita in 1870 to over $400.00 per capita in 1963, compared with a national average of $104.00. Utah ranks sixteenth in the nation in total value of minerals produced and sixth in terms of the percentage of total labor force employed in mining.10 6 Ibid., 4 1 . I n 1967 U t a h fell behind Colorado. U.S., D e p a r t m e n t of the Interior, Geological Survey, Minerals Yearbook ( 1 9 6 7 ) , III, 8-28. (Table on these pages lists mineral production in all states.) 7 Mineral and Water Resources, 65. Gilsonite is a black, lustrous substance having the appearance of solidified tar. I t m a y be converted to coke and gasoline. It is also used in ink, floor tile, brake linings, paint, a n d many other products. I t is important to the economy of northeastern U t a h . "Ibid., 7 1 . 9 Ibid., 169. 10 Ibid., 9 ; Nelson and Harline, Utah's Changing Economic Patterns, 19; Minerals Yearbook ( 1 9 6 7 ) , 7; U t a h Mining Association, Utah's Mining Industry: An Historical, Operational, and Economic Review of Utah's Mining Industry (Salt Lake City, 1967), 23.


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of Mining

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T H E Q U E S T I O N OF ECONOMIC I M P A C T

With good cause, then, U t a h has been called the "Treasure House of the Nation." It is the intent of this article to examine the role of mining in the economy of this mineral-rich state. No industry stands alone, and each contributes something to as well as draws something from other segments of the economy. With respect to mining, one might ask such questions as what percentage of the mining product is exported? H o w much employment does mining provide, and how does this compare with general employment patterns in the state? H o w does employment in mining promote other business activities? W h a t taxes are paid by the industry? H o w has mechanization affected employment patterns as well as production figures? Finally, how have these factors changed in the twentieth century, and what does this tell us about the present and possible future role of mining in the economic life of Utah? A consideration of these questions provides valuable insight not only into this problem but also into the changing nature of Utah's economy as a whole. CHANGING EMPLOYMENT PATTERNS

In spite of the increasing value of minerals produced in Utah, employment in mining as a percentage of the total work force declined significantly after 1900. T h e explanation for this lies in improved technology, a change in mining patterns, and a general shift of emphasis in the state's economy. I n 1900 some 7,000 people, or 8.3 per cent of the work force, were employed in mining, as compared with 10,000 workers but only 7.6 per cent of the labor force in 1910. I t was in that decade that Utah's chief metal product, copper, came into its own, due largely to the technological developments of Daniel C. Jackling and associates in the processing of low grade ores. Copper production climbed from 9.2 million tons to 63.8 million. 11 This was an increase of some 600 per cent as compared with an increase of less than 50 per cent in the number of total miners. Metal, however, accounted for slightly less than half the increase in total mining employment. T h e other half came mostly in coal, which jumped from 989 employees in 1900 to 2,463 in 1910. This reflected a bitter rivalry for production between U t a h Fuel Company, a subsidiary of the Denver & Rio Grande Western Railroad, and a number of independent producers about the middle of the decade. 1 2 T h e coal mining industry more than doubled its output, from 1.1 million tons to 11

1969 Statistical Abstract, 208. Thomas G. Alexander, "From Dearth to Deluge: Utah's Coal Industry," U.H Q (Summer, 1963), 237-38. 12

31


Utah Historical

244

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Coal mines at Scofield, Utah, in the 1900's. Photograph gift of Robert W. Edwards.

2.5 million.13 Clearly, technological changes in metal mining had greatly increased the output per man but such changes were not evident in coal mining. The important fact here, however, is that mining decreased as a percentage of total employment in the state. It is instructive to observe which industries experienced the most substantial growth. Employment in building trades and construction jumped from 4.7 to 11.7 per cent; nonferrous metal manufacturing nearly quadrupled its total employment and rose from .6 to 1.5 per cent of the labor force; transportation, communication, and other utilities jumped from 6.7 to 8.9 per cent, the greatest increase being in railroads; wholesale and retail trade rose from 5.8 to 9.3 per cent. The fact that Utahns were employed in producing more than one important mineral sometimes helped ease the adverse effects of national economic fluctuations on the state. Events between 1910 and 1940 provide a good illustration. The early stages of World War I precipitated a 13

1969 Statistical

Abstract,

216.


Impact of Mining on Utah's Economy

245

slump in the world copper market forcing Utah Copper to curtail its operations by 50 per cent. The industry bounced back in 1915 and 1916, but drastic cut-backs after the war led to the shutting down of the Magna mill in 1919 and the Arthur plant in 1921.14 At the same time the war stimulated coal mining as a variety of expanding West Coast industries provided new markets and Utah production exceeded 6 million tons in 1920. By that time metal mining had lost nearly 2,000 workers and accounted for only 3.7 per cent of total Utah employment, but coal mining had gained over 1,500 employees and accounted for a record 2.7 per cent.15 In the 1920's coal mining entered a depressed condition which was alleviated only by the demands of World War II. 16 These same years, on the other hand, were boom years for copper mining and manufacturing, and the decline which set in with the Depression was at an end by 1936.17 These conditions were reflected in another shift in the employment pat14 Leonard J. Arrington and Gary B. Hansen, "The Richest Hole on Earth," A History of the Bingham Copper Mine (Logan, 1963), 70. 15 T h e only decennial figures showing a higher percentage employed in coal mining are those for 1950, in which coal mining was 2.9 per cent. 16 Alexander, "Dearth to Deluge," U.H.Q., 3 1 , p p . 2 4 1 - 4 3 . 17 Arrington and Hansen, "Richest Hole on Earth," 7 2 - 7 3 ; 1969 Statistical Abstract, 209.

Coal mining showing the boilers at Sunnyside, Utah, in 1903. Photograph gift of Robert W. Edwards.


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tern. In 1940 Utah employed the same percentage of workers in mining as it had in 1920. Metal mining, however, had increased its employment by approximately 1,800, to account for 4.8 per cent of the total workers in the state, while coal had lost nearly 1,800 workers and carried only 1.5 per cent of the state total. In this decade the tables were turned and copper provided the long-range stable employment which was lost through a declining coal industry. Between 1920 and 1940 the most significant increase in percentage of state employment came in wholesale and retail trade, transportation, communications and other utilities, and in federal government employment. Manufacturing actually declined, although non-ferrous metals manufacturing showed a slight increase. In general employment was beginning to move into more areas not directly affected by the fortunes of mining. In 1940 the number of employees in Utah's service industries exceeded, for the first time, the number in the basic production industries of agriculture, mining, manufacturing, and transportation. This was the beginning of a dramatic evolution in the economy of the state, and over the next two decades industrial expansion in terms of employment, productivity, and variety almost equaled the previous hundred years.18 This does not mean that mining declined in value or general importance, but merely that the economy became more diversified, that automation began to replace manual labor, and that there was a greater pyramid of economic activity built on each industry. Many sectors of the mining industry were strengthened. Iron mining, in particular, was stimulated by the establishment of Geneva Steel near Provo, and expanded markets in Colorado and California. After 1956 petroleum and petroleum products also increased in importance, as did various non-metallic minerals such as salt, sulphur, fertilizers, and building materials. 19 Amid these changes relative employment in mining continued to decline. Total mining employment in 1960 was some 12,000 workers, about 2,000 above the 1940 level, but down to a mere 4 per cent of the state total. In mid-1969 total mining employment was down to 3.1 per cent.20 Where mining had once been second only to manufacturing in non-agricultural employment, it was now last among twelve major industrial groups, including agriculture. In terms of employment alone, the 18 EIRoy Nelson, " T h e Mineral Industry: A Foundation of U t a h ' s Economy," U.H.Q.. 31 (Summer, 1963), 185-86. 19 Nelson and Harline, Utah's Changing Economic Patterns, chap. 13. 20 U of U , Bureau of Economic and Business Research, Utah Economic and Business Review, 29 (August, 1969), 3.


Impact

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247

impact of mining on the economy of U t a h was of relatively small importance. Significantly, the major increase was in the area of federal employment. By 1969 the federal government was the largest employer in the State of U t a h , hiring 24.5 per cent of the total work force. One reason for the diminishing role of mining in the employment pattern was that substantial increases in productivity took place, due mainly to mechanization. In 1920 the value of all mineral products in the state amounted to $76,537,000. There were 10,117 men employed in mining, which meant that each m a n produced an average of $7,654 in value. By 1966 there were only 1,800 more men employed in mining, but the average production amounted to $40,387 per man, or an increase in productivity of over 550 per cent! 2 1 I n addition technological progress h a d a tendency to increase the use and value of certain minerals without increasing the actual quantity produced at the mines. These minerals underwent more efficient processing and more extended fabrication before reaching the final customer than they had earlier in the century. There was also greater use of scrap metals as well as substitutes for metal, such as plastics, rubber products, and laminated beams. As a result of such developments in technology not only U t a h but also other states experienced a downward trend in proportional mining employment. 2 2 PAYROLLS

Another measure of economic impact is direct payrolls. In 1929, the peak production year prior to the Great Depression, mining provided 11 per cent of the total civilian income in the state and was sixth among the ten major sources of income. 23 By 1967 it had steadily declined to ninth place, followed only by farming, and providing only 4 per cent of the state's total civilian income. O n the other h a n d mining remained high in terms of average monthly wages paid, rating number two among the major non-agricultural industries in 1937, and climbing to number one by 1967. With the statistical decline of mining in terms of total payrolls came an increase in industries related to mining. Manufacturing, for example, increased from 13.1 per cent in 1929 to 16.8 per cent in 1967, and it has been estimated that approximately one-third of Utah's manufacturing is 21

Based on figures in Arrington, Changing Economic Structure, and 1969 Statistical 204. 22 Harvey S. Perloff, Edgar S. D u n n , Jr., Eric E. L a m p a r d , and Richard F. M u t h , Regions, Resources, and Economic Growth (Baltimore, 1960), 309-10. 23 Mining was preceded, in order, by wholesale and retail trade, farming, transportation, communication and public utilities, and manufacturing. It was followed by general services; government; finance, insurance, and real estate; and construction. Abstract,


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devoted to primary manufacturing of metals. In this way the declining significance of mining payrolls was somewhat offset by the increase in payrolls directly related to mining. The major increase, however, came in the area of government services, which jumped dramatically from a seventh place 7.6 per cent of the payrolls in 1929 to first place 26.5 per cent in 1967.24 T H E DANGER OF TOO M U C H DEPENDENCE ON MINING

It has been suggested that the declining role of mining in terms of employment and payrolls is not a dismal picture either for the industry or for the State of Utah. For the state it may be considered simply a healthy withdrawal from a position of too much dependence upon one industry. For example a 1959 master's thesis at the University of Utah by Victor A. Stuckenschneider considered the impact of mining on Utah's economy during the Great Depression.25 Stuckenschneider concluded that since a significant portion of Utah's income depended upon mining, the cyclical nature of mining caused Utah to be adversely affected by the Depression more than the nation as a whole. Utah mining, it was shown, fluctuated more than other segments of the economy, and more than mining in the rest of the nation. For the nation as a whole, the value of mineral output decreased by 58 per cent, but in Utah it decreased approximately 80 per cent. Further, Utah's output was mostly in metallies, which experienced the greatest fluctuation within the mining industry. In the final analysis, declared Stuckenschneider, even though only about 7 per cent 26 of Utah's working force was employed directly in mining a total of 31 per cent was directly or indirectly dependent upon it. Agriculture accounted for more employment, but fluctuations of farm income were not as great as fluctuations in mining. Utah's high dependence upon mining activity, then, helped account for the seriousness of the Depression. If all of this is accurate, the diversification of industries in Utah, and the consequent decline in the total impact of mining, should be considered a healthy development as far as the general economy of the state is concerned.27 24

1969 Statistical Abstract, 8 8 - 8 9 . Victor A. Stuckenschneider, "A Study of the Impact of Mining on U t a h ' s Economy During the Great Depression" (master's thesis, University of U t a h , 1959). M Actually, according to Arrington's figures, in 1930 6.2 per cent of the total labor force and 8.2 per cent of the non-agricultural labor force was employed in mining. 27 In this connection see Utah Economic and Business Review, 29 (September, 1969) for a very interesting article on " T h e I m p a c t on the U t a h Economy of the 1966—1967 Copper Industry Strike." Although the findings in this article are not considered definitive, they seem generally to indicate that the total impact of the strike on the economy was not as severe as some sources have suggested. 25


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TAXES

Another indicator of the relative importance of mining to the state is the amount of taxes paid. I n 1956 assessed valuation of mineral properties amounted to 30.5 per cent of all the assessed valuation in the state, but by 1969 it h a d dropped to 15.39 per cent. This was due to a decline in uranium a n d iron production, although the copper strike, which lasted into three months of 1968 and thus affected the 1969 valuation, h a d some impact. 2 8 I n terms of total taxes, in 1962 mine owners paid $14.5 million in property taxes, or about 15 per cent of all property taxes paid in the state. I n 1968 the total property tax assessed mines was about the same amount, but it h a d dropped to only 10.5 per cent of all property taxes. 29 M i n e occupation taxes amount to 1 per cent of the gross value for metallic minerals and 2 per cent for oil and gas, after limited deductions. I n 1968 this source added some $2,674,000 to the general fund, or 3.4 per cent of the total $79.5 million. This was the fifth highest of eleven major general revenue sources. I n the same year funds received from federal leasing of mining property on school lands amounted to $1,993,000 or about 3 per cent of the Uniform School Fund. 3 0 As revenue sources, even these small percentages are obviously significant and it can be seen that mining has an important place in the tax structure of the state. I N T E R - R E L A T I O N S H I P B E T W E E N M I N I N G AND O T H E R SECTORS OF T H E E C O N O M Y

Employment, wages, and taxes all provide some indication of the role of mining in the economy of U t a h , but its impact m a y be seen more fully by studying the direct a n d indirect relationships between mining a n d other sectors of the economy. First, most of U t a h ' s mineral production is neither manufactured nor consumed within the state. It is exported, and has been from the beginning of the century. I n 1900 about half the people employed in mining were engaged in gold and silver mining. Of this group, nearly 95 per cent Were actually employed for export purposes, as were 86 per cent of those producing copper, lead, and other minerals. I n 1940, 95 per cent of all employment in metal mining was for export, a n d in 1950 the figure was 92 per cent. 28 Paul S. Rattle, Manager, U t a h Mining Association, to Members of the U t a h Mining Association, Salt Lake City, August 15, 1969. (Copy in possession of the author.) 29 Mineral and Water Resources, 14; U t a h Foundation, Research Briefs, February 19, 1969. 30 Merrill J. Bateman a n d Larry T . Wimmer, An Econometric Model of the Utah Revenue System: Projections 1969-1971 (Salt Lake City, 1968), 3-4.


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O t h e r minerals which are exported include coal and iron. I n 1962, for example, nearly 27 p e r cent of all the coal mined in U t a h was shipped to California, Washington, and Oregon. 3 1 Iron ore is currently shipped not only to the Geneva Steel Plant in U t a h County, but also to Colorado, California, and to some Eastern States. O n occasion it has even been shipped to Japan. 3 2 N a t u r a l gas is also exported from U t a h , and much of the state's petroleum is piped elsewhere for processing and refining. This is one reason why petroleum production has a relatively low total impact on the economy. If petroleum or any other exporting industry dealt mainly in finished or consumer goods, it would contribute more to income and employment within the state. 33 In 1960, 75 per cent of all those employed in all phases of U t a h mining were employed for export. 34 Although the dollar value of exported minerals is not directly a part of the economy of U t a h , beyond the amount received in wages, the export d e m a n d is essential to t h a t economy. U t a h could not possibly consume even a small percentage of all the copper, for example, produced in the state. T h e export d e m a n d provides a market for U t a h products and therefore direct employment in mining, along with the multiplier effects of this employment discussed below. I n this respect export industries are "basic" 3 5 to the economy of the state. M u c h of U t a h ' s mining product, nevertheless, remains in the state for milling, smelting, and primary manufacturing. Mineral processing is actually the most important segment of the U t a h manufacturing industry in terms of employment, wrages and salaries, and utilization of power, fuels, and transportation. I n 1964 the combined payroll of primary metals manufacturing, fabricated metals, and the products of petroleum, coal, stone, clay, and glass exceeded $130 million, half of which represented primary metals. I n addition, over 60 per cent of the railroad tonnage for that year was the product of the state's mines. 36 These figures suggest that mining contributes a significant multiplying effect to the economy. In 1955 it was estimated that for every dollar paid in wages in the non-ferrous mining industry, another dollar was paid 31

Mineral and Water Resources, 4 1 . Nelson a n d Harline, Utah's Changing Economic Patterns, 105. 33 Iver E. Bradley, " U t a h Interindustry Study An I n p u t - O u t p u t Analysis," U.E.B.R., 27 (July-August, 1967), 7. 34 Wayne K. Hinton, "Economic Structure of the M o u n t a i n West, 1960." Mr. Hinton, a Ph.D. candidate in history at Brigham Young University, prepared this paper in a graduate seminar in the summer of 1967 in order to add an analysis of the 1970 census to the figures presented in Arrington, Changing Economic Structure. 35 See Arrington, Changing Economic Structure, 10, for a discussion of what constitutes a basic industry in the eyes of regional economists. 36 Nelson and Harline, Utah's Changing Economic Patterns, 64, 70. 32


Impact of Mining on Utah's Economy

251

by the mines, mills, and smelters for goods and services. These included expenditures for coal, electricity, explosives, timber, machinery, equipment, and various chemicals used in milling. In addition the extensive use made of railroads added still more to the economy.37 Another way of expressing the relationship of mining to the economy is in terms of the gross value added by manufacturing. In 1958 it was determined that the value added in primary metals manufacturing was $141 million, in manufacturing of coal and petroleum products about $23 million, and in manufacture of stone, clay, and glass products $33 million. These values alone equal 45 per cent of the total $412 million value of all manufacturing in the state. 38 In the same year some 38,855 people were employed in manufacturing. 39 If we assume that 45 percent were employed directly or indirectly as a result of Utah's mineral production and add this to the total employed in mining, we find that some 13 per cent of the total non-agricultural employment was related to 37

Nelson, Utah's Economic Patterns, 85. Mineral and Water Resources, 12-14. 39 1969 Statistical Abstract, 67.

38

Kennecott Copper Company mining operation in the WW's. Photograph gift of Utah Tourist Council.


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mining. The multiplying effect would continue, of course, in proportion to the demands for goods and services created by manufacturing. This multiplying effect has not been constant throughout the century, and Utah's manufacturing industry has grown most significantly only during and after World War II. Between 1939 and 1956 the per cent of the state's population employed in manufacturing jumped from 2.5 to 4.6, and the value added to the economy by manufacturing rose from $87 million to $271 million. World War II provided the main stimulus and by 1955 the primary metals industry was the single most important manufacturer, furnishing 31 per cent of the state's manufacturing employment.40 Since that time employment in primary metals has declined by almost 30 per cent, due to automation, but the payroll has increased by approximately 10 per cent and the average wage by approximately 40 per cent.41 One of the most interesting and exhaustive efforts yet made to determine the relationship between Utah's various economic sectors was an input-output analysis by Iver E. Bradley done under the auspices of the Bureau of Economic and Business Research at the University of Utah in 1963. This ambitious project received financial aid from the federal government. This is the only far-reaching study of this sort available, but it reveals some interesting facts about the mining industry in the year 1963.42 Bradley first constructed a basic input-output table for 1963 in which he showed the dollar flow for goods and services between various sectors of the economy. The gross output of the state for that year was over $12 billion, and mining provided a relatively low 4.5 per cent of that figure. Other significant figures show that mining purchased 6.8 per cent of the gross output of railroads and 8.1 per cent of the gross output of electric, gas, and sanitary services. Mining paid 6.5 per cent of the total amount paid by industry to state and local governments, and provided 4.15 per cent of the total payments for wages, profits, employee benefits, etc. Relatively speaking, these percentages do not seem very large and suggest less overall dependence upon mining than probably existed earlier in the twentieth century. 40

Nelson, Utah's Economic

Patterns,

" N e l s o n and Harline, Utah's 42

202-4.

Changing

Economic

Bradley, " U t a h Interindustry Study," U.E.B.R., on this report.

Patterns,

64. 1969 Statistical

Abstract,

Vol. 27. T h e following facts are based


Impact

of Mining

on Utah's

Economy

I n another table Bradley analyzed the per-dollar distribution of purchases for each sector of the economy. With regard to metal mining, he found that for every one dollar of output, 31 cents went to "households": that is for wages, benefits, profits, etc. I n coal mining 49 cents went to households, and other non-metal mining provided 41 cents. Only 11.5 cents went into households from petroleum and natural gas. Within the industry, then, most mining activity contributes a high portion of its gross output to its own employees and investors while the petroleum industry contributes a relatively low portion. Capital consumption, imported goods, and taxes all drew more heavily upon this industry than did households. Bradley's most interesting figures were his "income multipliers." These represented a recognition that direct payments to households increased consumer income and created a chain reaction in the economy. T w o types of "multipliers" were calculated. Type I I was the most significant for it took into consideration direct payments, indirect payments, and so-called "induced payments" stemming from indirect payments and creating another round of spending. Here the relatively low input of mining to the total economy of the state is well illustrated. Of the 39 sectors in the economy, metal mining ranked twentieth in its multiOil operations in the Colorado and San Juan rivers area. Photograph gift of the Utah Petroleum Council.

253


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plier effect, non-metal mining twenty-second, petroleum and natural gas ranked twenty-fifth, and coal mining ranked twenty-sixth. This is especially significant in the case of coal mining, for this industry ranked eighth in terms of direct income payments to households (that is, percentage of output which went into income), yet only twenty-sixth in its multiplier effect. By comparison the economic sectors with the highest multiplier effects were retail food, livestock, general contractors, wholesale non-durable goods, dairy and poultry, amusement and recreation, food manufacturing, nonprofit organizations, automobile dealers and service stations, a n d primary metals manufacturing. MISCELLANEOUS

CONSIDERATIONS

T h e r e are many other factors connected with mining which may in some small way affect our understanding of its total impact on the economy of the state. Tourism, for example, is one of the growing industries of U t a h as well as the rest of the Western States. While the direct effect of mining on tourism is probably too small to be considered, it is nevertheless of interest to note that Kennecott Copper attracts tens of thousands of tourists annually to view its fantastic hole in the ground at Bingh a m . An indirect influence is the fact that two famous old mining towns, Park City a n d Alta, have been revived as tourist centers. T h e i r mining history is part of their aura a n d thus part of their attraction, especially in Park City. I n addition hundreds of ghost town enthusiasts, history buffs, and others annually visit such historically exciting places as Mercur, Frisco, and the Tintic Mining District. While they may spend only $10.00 a day for gas, this could symbolically represent a tiny multiplier effect even of mining activities long since abandoned. THE

FUTURE

What, then, is the future of mining in U t a h ? There seems little question that production and processing of the primary metals will remain at a high level, and that U t a h will continue to produce a significant portion of the national output. New uses for coal and coal products promises a possible upswing in that industry, 43 and there is little doubt that petroleum products will continue to increase in value. New mining developments are likely to occur as the vast oil shale deposits in eastern Utah are exploited, although it may be some time before this becomes commer43 For a general discussion of changes in the coal industry, see Frank C Hachman and Douglas C W. Kirk, " U t a h Coal — Market Potential and Economic I m p a c t , " U.E.B.R., 28 (April, 1969).


Impact of Mining on Utah's Economy

255

dally feasible. Beryllium promises to come into its own soon, as do magnesium and lithium which are scheduled to be produced from the brines of the Great Salt Lake and the wells in Grand County. 44 It was estimated in 1964 that total per capita demand for minerals would increase significantly so that by the year 2000 the demand for finished steel would have increased 200 per cent, lead by 180, zinc by 250, and copper by 275. Although the uranium boom of the 1950's had been phased out by the 1960's, peaceful uses were expected to keep this industry active. 45 All this presents a most hopeful prospect for the future stability and viability of the mining industry, but it does not reflect the other factors that show its probable impact on the total economy of the state. It has been estimated by the Bureau of Economic and Business Research that actual employment as well as the ratio of employment in mining will continue to decline, reaching 10,100, or 1.8 per cent of the state total in 1985, and remaining the lowest of the ten major industrial groupings.46 Manufacturing is also expected to decline. Obviously the multiplier effect of mining will not increase but, probably, will decrease slightly over the years. In general it can be said that mining will continue to be a basic industry in that it will provide an important tax base, jobs, manufacturing possibilities, and many needed fuel and building products, as well as demands for goods and services which will have the effect of supporting many other sectors of the economy. But the citizens of the Treasure House of the Nation will not find their state as economically dependent upon mining as it may have been in the past.

44 Nelson and Harline, Utah's Changing Economic Patterns, 1 8 - 1 9 ; Salt Lake Tribune, August 9, 1969. 45 Nelson and Harline, Utah's Changing Economic Patterns, 88. 44 Lawrence Nabers, Jewell J. Rasmussen, and J o h n W. Lord, Employment, Population, Income and Automobiles in Salt Lake, Ogden, Provo Metropolitan Areas and State of Utah (Salt Lake City, 1966), 17, 33.


George Q. Cannon, Utah's Delegate to Congress.

Elias Smith, probate judge from 1852 to 1882.

Fairness in the Salt Lake County Probate Court BY J A Y E. P O W E L L

X

occasioned by the unusual jurisdiction of Utah's probate courts was not primarily prompted by a concern for justice and fairness. Simply stated, the basic issue was power politics — both MorH E STORMY DEBATE 1

Mr. Powell received his B.A. from the University of U t a h in 1968. H e is presently a V I S T A Volunteer working in Wisconsin and plans to attend law school upon completion of his V I S T A commitment. 1 For a concise summary of the dispute, see James B. Allen, " T h e Unusual Jurisdiction of County Probate Courts in the Territory of U t a h , " Utah Historical Quarterly, 36 (Spring, 1968), 133-42.


Salt Lake County Probate Court

257

mons and representatives of the federal government claiming the right and the power to control the courts of first instance in the territory. The Mormons had seized the initiative, taking advantage of a loosely-worded provision in the territorial Organic Act to pass legislation granting general civil and criminal jurisdiction to the probate courts. In effect the Mormon-controlled probate courts were thereby given original jurisdiction concurrent with the territorial district courts, which were presided over by federally appointed judges. This action, though hardly conventional, was quite within the authority the Organic Act granted the territorial legislature. While unusual, the expanded probate jurisdiction was not unique. On occasion Congress granted similar powers to probate courts in other territories. Further, since Congress had to approve all legislation passed by territorial legislatures, the action of the Utah Legislature in delegating judicial powers received Congress' official, if perfunctory, blessing. The issue of probate jurisdiction may never have amounted to anything had it not been for two essential conditions. One was the cohesive and authoritarian nature of Mormon religious, social, and political structures. The other was the presence of certain federal judges who chafed at seeing legal business they normally would have handled going to the probate courts. It was relatively simple for these judges to depict the jurisdictional dispute as a secessionist threat by the Mormon "empire." Only as a minor variation on this secessionist theme did fairness become involved. Once the major premise was granted, it was easy to imply that in the courts of Brigham's autocratic kingdom justice for outsiders did not exist. So it was that the crusading judges, raising the ghost of secessionism and making it appear alive and strong in Utah — and given a boost by the publicity generated by polygamy—succeeded in stirring Congress from its customary lethargy toward territorial affairs. Once aroused, Congress would not be denied. When the probate court question came up for congressional consideration in the form of the Poland Bill in 1874, the vote was overwhelmingly against the extended jurisdiction. Utah Delegate George Q. Cannon vainly sought to build dikes of reassurance to stem the congressional tide, but his rational tools were inadequate to the task of containing what had become an emotional issue. The issue of power was in this instance, as in the Civil War, resolved in favor of the federal government. One of Cannon's ineffective "dikes" was an attempt to prove statistically that the probate court in Salt Lake County was fair. Of eighty-


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four suits pitting Mormons (Utah's "insiders") against non-Mormons (the "outsiders"), juries decided fifty-nine in favor of the non-Mormons.2 Quite apart from the obvious fact that Cannon really did not prove fairness with his figures is the question whether it is possible for court records to speak to the issue of fairness. Certainly a case-by-case determination of fairness is virtually impossible, since there is only the barest outline of cases in the court dockets. It may be possible, however, to draw some valid conclusions by expanding and refining the statistical approach which Delegate Cannon used. The assumption underlying a statistical analysis is that consistency indicates a basic fairness in court operations. For this article the docket of the Salt Lake County Probate Court, beginning at its organization in 1852 and extending through mid-1855, was chosen to test the possibility of statistically-determined fairness.3 In using a statistical approach it is first necessary to establish a standard to use in testing the court under specific conditions. The total performance of the court was chosen as this standard. Of 225 non-divorce civil suits filed, 128, or 57 per cent, resulted in decisions by the court. The remainder were withdrawn or otherwise discontinued before the rendering of a decision, usually before commencement of trial proceedings. The cases decided by the court yield the key statistic: the plaintiff-defendant decision ratio. The Salt Lake court awarded 89 per cent of its decisions to plaintiffs and 11 per cent to defendants.4 These percentages will serve as the standard of fairness and will be compared to the percentages observed under special conditions. For the purpose of compiling these figures, a judgment of any size awarded the plaintiff was considered a decision in his favor, while only a suit dismissed by the court was considered a decision for the defendant. First among possible biases is that against non-Mormons and nonresidents. In larger terms this is the "insider-outsider" problem mentioned earlier. All non-divorce civil suits may be classified as follows:5 2

Ibid., 142. For a more thorough statistical analysis of the operations of this court, see Jay E. Powell, "An Analysis of the Nature of the Salt Lake County Probate Court's Role in Aggravating AntiMormon Sentiment, 1852-1855" (honors essay, University of U t a h , 1968). 4 By way of comparison, James Williard Hurst, The Growth of American Law (Boston, 1950), 172-73, notes that of cases filed in New Haven County, Connecticut, 1919-32, forty per cent were terminated by some kind of court action. Of these eighty-three per cent were decided in favor of the plaintiff. Hurst stresses (p. 176) the non-existence of reliable statistics for judicial activities before the year 1920; and, indeed, this writer has found none. T h e figures quoted are thus the earliest available statistics capable of comparison with those from the Salt Lake court. 5 Insiders were identified by comparing the list of litigants obtained from the docket against "Crossing the Plains," Microfilm # 3 8 3 3 5 , parts 10, 11, and 12 (Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints Genealogical Society, Salt Lake City; original card file in L.D.S. Church Historian's Library, Salt Lake C i t y ) . 3


Salt Lake County Probate Court

259

Insider v. Insider

Suits Filed Tried & Decided Per cent

Insider v. Outsider

25 16 64

Outsider v. Insider

34 17 50

Outsider v. Outsider

24 19 79

Total

142 76 54

225 128 57

It will be noted that a clear majority of civil suits were between outsiders — usually emigrants on their way to the coast. Relatively few cases set insiders and outsiders against each other. Of those which did and were carried through a court decision, the results were as follows: Insider v. Outsider

Cases Decided Decision for Plaintiff Decision for Defendant Decision for Insider Decision for Outsider

15 2 15 2

Oustsider v. Insider

17 (88%) (12%) (88%) (12%)

16 3 3 16

19 (84%) (16%) (16%) (84%)

Total

31 5 18 18

Norms

36 (86%) (14%) (50%) (50%)

89% 11%

The decision rate for plaintiffs and defendants is relatively stable and compares favorably with the norm. It is obvious that, for winning a suit, being a plaintiff was much more important than being an insider. It is easily seen that the insider-outsider decision ratio — which is the statistic quoted by Delegate Cannon in Congress — is meaningless by itself. It could fluctuate dramatically depending upon the relative number in each category who were plaintiffs or defendants, without reflecting any change in the basic fairness of the court. The figures for criminal actions are equally informative. Cases Filed

Insider Defendant Outsider Defendant Total

13 25 38

(minus) Confessions

2 5 7

Decisions by Court

Conviction

Acquittal

11 20 31

9 (82%) 8 (40%) 17 (55%)

2 (18%) 12 (60%) 14 (45%0)

Nature of Decision

The difference between the insider and outsider conviction-acquittal ratios may indicate that outsiders were arrested and indicted on less substantial evidence than were insiders. If so, the court refused to play along. On the other hand the difference may show that Saints were thought more culpable for waywardness than were uninstructed Gentiles. In any event it seems clear that the court was inclined to be sympathetic with


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outsiders and was not especially interested in humiliating or fining those who appeared before it as criminal defendants. Since litigation was officially discouraged by the church, one might suspect that repetitious litigants would suffer at the hands of the court. But here, too, the figures fail to support the suspicion. Some 39 repeating litigants were involved in 107 suits. However, of these 23 participated in only two suits apiece and ten in three each. The greatest number of suits for one person was seven, but only one litigant reached that total. Of 61 total decisions, repeaters won 26 and lost 35. By eliminating duplications (24) caused when two or more repeaters were involved in the same suit; by focusing on the plaintiff-defendant decision rate instead of the repeater win-lose rate; and by eliminating from consideration "first" suits (28) in which neither party yet qualified as a repeater, the following figures result. They are remarkably similar to the court norms. Suits Filed

55 (Norms)

Decisions Rendered

34

Decision for Plaintiff

Decision for Defendant

30 (88%) (89%)

4 (12%) (11%)

Because of the few cases involved, other areas of possible prejudice require an anecdotal, rather than statistical, approach. Prominent church leaders, for example, rarely appeared before the court. Brigham Young filed two suits — one in the amount of $150.00 and the other for $1,409. Both suits were withdrawn before trial upon payment of the demanded sums.6 Wilford Woodruff also filed two suits, one of which was settled before trial. He won the other by default.7 It is interesting that Orrin Porter Rockwell and William A. Hickman, both known for preferring to settle grievances by more direct methods, appeared before the court as plaintiffs. Rockwell sued to collect a $15.00 debt and was given full judgment by the court.8 Hickman was a civil plaintiff twice and a criminal defendant once. His first time in court he filed a $2,500 suit against three co-defendants •— all of whom fit the category of "repetitious litigant." The case was withdrawn from the court by agreement of the parties and submitted to arbitrators upon their posting $5,000 bond to guarantee compliance with the arbitrators' decision. Their decision was to award Hickman a niggardly $70.00. In his 6 Salt Lake County, Probate Court, "Docket A - l , J u n e 25, 1852-Sep. 1, 1860" (Salt Lake County Clerk's Office), 152, 276. 'Ibid., 188, 255. 8 Ibid., 37.


Salt Lake County Probate

Court

261

second appearance he was n a m e d defendant in a complaint for "assault with intent to commit personal injury." But the case was taken from the probate ' Âť:! ' court by a writ of habeas corpus issued by District Judge Leonidas Shaver. W h a t ever the disposition of that case, Hickm a n was back in the probate court two weeks later filing another civil suit, which was discontinued for some unspecified reason. 9 C h u r c h agencies sometimes h a d resort to the judicial process. T h e Tithing Office filed one suit for $57.67, which it won by default. A horse owned by the defendant was attached by the court a n d sold to satisfy the judgment. 1 0 T h e PerBrigham Young petual Emigrating F u n d filed ten suits, which, according to Hosea Stout who acted as attorney for the P. E. F., were occasioned by debtors intending to leave the territory without settling up. 1 1 However, these ten suits produced but one court decision, which was in favor of the P. E. F. T h e nine remaining suits were either withdrawn upon pretrial settlement or discontinued upon discovery that the defendants h a d no property to attach and, presumably, were destitute. Suits filed by merchants to collect overdue accounts were invariably successful, in spite of the fact that the majority of these merchants were outside concerns and were characterized by church leaders as profiteers seeking to drain the territory of its liquid capital. Since the merchants undoubtedly possessed the required legal documentation of their customers' indebtedness, the cases were pretty much of the open-and-shut 9

Ibid., 122, 235, 240. Ibid., 191. " J u a n i t a Brooks, ed., On the Mormon Frontier: The Diary of Hosea Stout, 1844-1861 (2 vols., Salt Lake 10

City, 1964), II, 554.

Orrin Porter

Rockwell


262

Utah Historical Quarterly

variety. It should not, however, be assumed that the court was necessarily reluctant in awarding these judgments, since it has been suggested that the Mormon faith being against all commercial transactions and social relations with Gentiles, "if the brethren would disobey counsel and get into trouble," they enjoyed the discomfiture of the litigant brother, and as they thought he deserved to lose, they made it so.12

It does not appear from the above evidence that the Salt Lake County Probate Court was unfair during its first years of operation. This is not, of course, the same as proving that the court was a pillar of impartiality. If anything has been established by our foray into the risky world of statistics, it is that in a number of areas highly vulnerable to bias the court apparently did not vary from its customary standard of justice. If bias was at work it was at least not the clumsy, unimaginative amateur who would have risked being surprised raiding the statistical cookie jar. The question of the existence of a more sophisticated bias in the Salt Lake court, as the question of the fairness of the probate court system as a whole, remains unanswered. 12 "Journal History" (L.D.S. Church Historian's Library), September 17, 1877 (quoted from the New York Herald).

1870 T h e women of U t a h were enfranchised. T h e Liberal Party was organized in Salt Lake City, and commenced its warfare against the "Mormons." T h e annual muster of the U t a h militia was forbidden by Gov. Schaffer. Judge James B. M c K e a n commenced his inglorious career in the Territory. Dr. Taggart, assessor of internal revenue, m a d e a despicable attempt to compel the Church to pay a n enormous tax on tithing, but failed in his scheme. (Andrew Jenson, comp., Church Chronology. A Record of Important Events Pertaining History o fthe Church of lesus Christ of Latter-day Saints [Salt Lake City, 1914], 82.)

to the


mm mmmms ' ••'am

The Industrial Christian Home erected in 1888—89 on Fifth East between First and Second South streets. C. R. Savage photograph.

An Industrial Home For Polygamous Wives BY G U S T I V E O. L A R S O N

% HE GENTILE WOMEN OF UTAH, united since 1871 in opposition to

Mormon plural marriage, girded for definite action in 1878 when two Mr. Larson, past contributor to the Utah Historical at Brigham Young University, Provo.

Quarterly,

is professor of history


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Utah Historical Quarterly

hundred of them organized the Anti-Polygamy Society. Two years later the Anti-Polygamy Standard sounded their battle cry as an echo of the Civil War death chant to the other "relic of barbarism." 1 The organization labored to keep the plural wife issue alive in the United States and undoubtedly influenced anti-polygamy sentiment in the nation's capital. However, it was not until Mrs. Angie F. Newman, evangelistic Methodist from Lincoln, Nebraska, came to Salt Lake City in the summer of 1880 that the ladies focused attention more directly on aid to the Mormon polygamous wives who were expected soon to rebel against their masters or be cast off in the process of anti-polygamy law enforcement. With this in mind, Mrs. Newman proposed to establish a house of refuge toward which she collected funds from the local Methodist congregation and won a promise of $3,000 from the Women's Home Missionary Society. However, the movement slowed during her temporary absence from Utah Territory, and in the meantime Congress passed the Edmunds Law in 1882 to put teeth into the earlier Anti-Bigamy Law of 1862. With its definition of polygamous living as unlawful cohabitation, and subjecting offenders to six months imprisonment and/or a fine of $300.00 the new law promised early breakup of the Mormon polygamy system. When Mrs. Newman returned to Utah in November of 1883 she was ready to resume the battle to rehabilitate her Mormon sisters. In December she succeeded in collecting $6,500 for the project at a convention of the Women's Home Missionary Society held in Cincinnati.2 She was also encouraged by a nod of approval from wives of several Methodist bishops and especially from America's First Lady, Mrs. Rutherford B. Hayes. However, upon facing the problem close at hand in Utah, she realized that her efforts would be very limited unless she could win federal support. Such support could best be won through linking her project with the government effort to abolish polygamy. To this end she moved from a sectarian to a non-denominational approach and gained the support of the Anti-Polygamy Society which included the Gentile civic and religious leaders of the territory. This united "Christian but undenominational" body now proceeded, with the support of Governor Eli H. Murray and other federal officials, to organize "The Industrial Christian Home Association of Utah." 1 Phrase adopted in the political platform of the newly organized Republican party in 1856 — " I t is both the right and imperative duty of Congress to prohibit in the Territories those twin relics of barbarism — polygamy and slavery." Kirk H . Porter, National Party Platforms (New York, 1924), 24. 2 Salt Lake Tribune, December 2, 1883, as quoted in Robert J. Dwyer, The Gentile Comes to Utah: A Study in Religious and Social Conflict (1862-1890) (Washington, D . C , 1941). Dwyer has a good summary of the Industrial H o m e movement in Chapter V I I .


Industrial Christian Home

265

The incorporation was effected on March 15, 1886, and organized with . . . a board of thirteen directors or trustees, and a president, eight vice presidents, a recording secretary, a corresponding secretary and a treasurer. . . the following-named persons shall be officers of this corporation: George A. Lowe, George S. Ellis, Hector M. Scott, James M. Darling, Ira E. Lyons, Henry W. Lawrence, Rebecca L. Shelton, Clara Huse, Emma C. Miller, Martha A. Locke, Margaret D. Zane, and Martha M. Campbell, each and all of Salt Lake City, Utah, and Jeanette H. Ferry of Park City, Utah shall be President, Emma L. Carroll, Hettie M. Critchlow, Emma L. Miller, Cora Huse, Rebecca L. Shelton, Margaret D. Zane and Martha M. Campbell, each and all of Salt Lake City, Utah, and Angie F. Newman of Lincoln, Nebraska shall be vice presidents and Martha A. Locke of Salt Lake City, Utah, shall be corresponding secretary, and Anna Baker of Salt Lake City, Utah shall be recording secretary.3

Article VI outlined the "objects, pursuits, and business of the corporation" in very general terms without direct reference to the Mormon institution of polygamy.4 The "corporation" was to . . . form, build, equip, provide for, maintain and regulate, in all necessary and proper ways, industrial homes, boarding houses, schools, hospitals, such places for instruction, aid, betterment and general benevolent and charitable purposes at Salt Lake City and other places in Utah Territory and elsewhere, and in which to promote and accomplish the fitting of persons for industrial and all other pursuits. Also to teach, instruct, discipline, educate and fit the active duties of life all classes of people without distinction, but more especially women and children . . . . 5

In a meeting of the Board of Directors held on March 22, it was unanimously Resolved that Mrs. Angie F. Newman of Lincoln, Nebraska, one of the vice presidents of this corporation be, and is hereby appointed and authorized to represent this corporation in Washington D.C. and at other Eastern places, as its aid and assistant in forwarding all matters pertaining to the business of the Corporation.

Among the matters listed was "to secure in all proper ways congressional action and assistance by way of appropriations." 3 T h e high standing of the officers a n d advocates of the Association was stressed in all approaches to government officials for financial support. See remarks of Honorable Isaac Struble on floor of the House, October 4, 1888, in U.S., Congressional Record, 50th Cong., 1st Sess., 1887-88, X I X , Part 10, 555. 4 T h e r e was speculation among the Mormons that the movement was initiated by the evangelical churches whose objective was to promote their missionary cause in U t a h , and that the anti-polygamy feature was added to secure government appropriations. This view finds supp o r t in the extreme disappointment expressed by the H o m e sponsors over the eligibility limitations adopted with regard to prospective inmates. Said the Deseret News (Salt Lake City) of July 29, 1899, "This special anti-Mormon feature was not, it seems, originally contemplated and was added in the hope of making sure of additional a n d continued appropriations from Congress." 5 U.S., Congressional Record, 50th Cong., 1st Sess., 1887-88, X I X , P a r t 10, 556.


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Utah Historical Quarterly

While polygamy was not mentioned specifically in the Articles of Incorporation, there was no mistaking the Association's assumed role in support of the government's "Judicial Crusade" against plural marriage. A dramatic rise in the number of convictions and imprisonments for unlawful cohabitation from three in 1884 to thirty-nine by the end of 1885, with forty-three cases awaiting trial, was not without related significance. That the number of arrests would continue upward to justify the Gentile women's rescue mission was fully expected by the Utah Commission6 and the federal judiciary. Four members of the Commission addressed the chairman of the House Appropriation Committee on March 12, 1886, in support of Mrs. Newman's assignment in Washington. We believe that such a beneficence, supplemental to the enforcement of the laws for the suppression of polygamy in Utah will effectively aid in accomplishing the result sought through Congressional legislation. It may be reasonably hoped that this provision for the maintenance and industrial education of polygamous wives and children will induce the withdrawal of many who are now held through fear of the distress and suffering that would inevitably result to them from such separation. We desire, therefore, to second the appeal of the Association in this behalf.7

Mrs. Newman, who was already in Washington when authorized on March 22 to represent the Industrial Home, was armed not only with credentials from the officers of the organization itself, but with a number of letters written to congressmen in her support by members of the ministry and from Governor James Davies of Nebraska.8 She lost no time in making contacts to get her petition for support of the Home before Congress. Senator Henry W. Blair of Missouri introduced it in the Senate on April 29 where it was referred to the Committee on Education and Labor. 9 When it was introduced in the House on June 14 it was referred to the Committee on Appropriations. 10 Mrs. Newman was pleased to attend a hearing May 7 before the Committee on Education and Labor on the "proposed establishment of a school under the direction of the Industrial Christian Home Association 8 A presidentially appointed committee of five members to administer the election machinery in U t a h . 7 Territorial Papers, No. 60, Polygamy File (National Archives, Washington, D . C ) . Judge Charles S. Zane, Attorney W. H. Dickson, and U.S. Marshal E. A. Ireland wrote similarly: "There are many women now members of polygamous families who would renounce their present relations if they had any place of shelter or any means of support assured for themselves and their children. There are many more who have renounced polygamy and Mormonism together, and who have nothing but their hands to ward off starvation . . . ." 8 These letters are preserved among Territorial Papers, No. 60, Polyeramy File P. & M. (NA). 9 U.S., Congressional Record, 49th Cong., 1st Sess., 1885-86, 3999. 10 Ibid., 5642.


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of Utah, to provide means of self support for the dependent classes of that territory, and to aid in the suppression of polygamy therein." The hearing was based on a memorial from the officers of the Association and presented to the Committee by their zealous agent. Following a statement of the proposed activities of the organization — which were presented under the heading of training in domestic industries, mechanical industries, and temporary shelter for homeless women and children — the memorial concluded with a defense and justification of their application. T h e d e m a n d for such an institution is found (1) in the anomolous social condition of U t a h Territory u n d e r M o r m o n regime. (2) . . . it is hopeless to expect a M o r m o n legislature to appropriate funds to meet a condition of things which the M o r m o n leaders declare does not exist or to establish an institution which shall contribute toward the disintegration of the M o r m o n C h u r c h . . . . T h e question of self-support is basal to the solution of the problem of the disruption of polygamous households. It is a well known fact t h a t there are m a n y who would voluntarily a b a n d o n polygamous relations if facilities for self-support were provided. Furthermore it is futile to legislate against existing relations a n d m a k e no provision for the terrible exigencies which arise in the execution of t h e l a w . . . . Therefore it is with confidence in that justice which is the apotheosis of mercy that we . . . ask of your honorable body the appropriation of $100,000 to the Industrial Christian H o m e Association for the construction and equipment of such a n institution as herein specified. 11

Since the women of Mormondom were appearenttly unaware of the "evils" set forth as facts by the crusaders, their denial came promptly. T o the Honorable Committee of the Senate on Education and L a b o r : Gentlemen: . . . O n e of the principle reasons why she [Mrs. N e w m a n ] makes this application appears to be the benefits proposed to be offered to M o r m o n women by this institution, inasmuch as it would provide "avenues of escape from polygamy and its a t t e n d a n t evils to young M o r m o n females who would otherwise be held in bondage to t h a t system." As we are the representatives of the M o r m o n women, we do, in their name, most emphatically protest against any such pretext being used for obtaining a share of the public funds. N o M o r m o n woman, old or young, is compelled to m a r r y at all; still less to enter into p o l y g a m y . . . . M o r m o n girls have homes as happy, as p u r e and as desirable as any of their Eastern sisters, a n d are far more independent. If they choose to be self-sustaining there are a b u n d a n t opportunities for so d o i n g . . . . T h e same freedom exists for any who desire to leave the M o r m o n C h u r c h . . . . 11 Territorial Papers, Record Group 48, Polygamy File, P. & M. ( N A ) . See also Newman memorial remonstrating against admission of U t a h to statehood, in U.S., Congress, Senate 50th Cong., 1st Sess., 1887-88, Senate Misc. Doc. 211.


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Quarterly

The letter, which was signed "on behalf of the Mormon women of Utah," concluded with a protest against Mrs. Newman seeking public alms for the benefit of Mormon women against whom she was "industriously circulating malignant falsehoods." The letter then added We must positively assert that there is not a Mormon wife, whether plural or otherwise, who would accept charity at the hands of those who have procured, and are still demanding passage of laws whose enforcement has brought sorrow and desolation into our once happy homes. 12

The Gentile voice, predicting that the proposed house of refuge would be flooded by waiting applicants, drowned out the Mormon protest in Congress and on June 11, 1886, the Deseret News commented, under the heading "A Huge Gentile Anti-Mormon Sham," "Here is a proposition before Congress to give a little knot of schemers in Utah $100,000 to establish a home for 'escaped' polygamous wives. It will not be surprising if it is given to the plotters to spend as they please." The first Session of the Forty-Ninth Congress did respond favorably on Augustt 4, 1886, by appropriating $40,000 to aid in the establishment of an Industrial Home in the Territory of Utah, to provide employment and means of self-support for the dependent women who renounce polygamy, and the children of such women of tender age, in said Territory, with a view to aid in the suppression of polygamy therein.

The money appropriated was to be under the management of a Board of Control to consist of the governor, justices of the Supreme Court, and the district attorney. 13 When Congress created the Board of Control to manage expenditures of the fund, the officers of the Industrial Home felt their success in winning an appropriation had been partially negated. Mrs. Newman complained bitterly in a letter to President Grover Cleveland on November 13, that the officers and the Board of Directors of the Association were unable to advance a single step because of the interpretation of the law by Governor West. She complained because the governor, uncertain as to the actual needs claimed by the crusaders, had instituted a survey of his own, the results of which differed from the radical claims which had won the appropriation. Mrs. Newman further stated that 12 T h e letter was signed by Mrs. Emmeline B. Wells, Ellen B. Ferguson, Emily S. Richards a n d Josephine M. West. Territorial Papers, R.G. 48, Polygamy File, M a y 12, 1886 ( N A ) . M r s ' N e w m a n , in a letter of M a y 20 addressed to Honorable William W. Blair, c h a i r m a n of the Committee on Education a n d Labor, took issue with the claims of the M o r m o n women, citing several controversial reports on the evils of polygamous living. 18 Territorial Papers, No. 60, Polygamy File ( N A ) ; also U.S., Statutes at Large X X I V C h a p . 902, p . 252. '


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269

The report of the Senate Committee determines to whom the appropriation is made. It expressly states "under the direction of the Industrial Christian Home Association." . . . President Cleveland, this enterprise is women's work for her suffering sex. It was projected by a Society of which Mrs. Rutherford B. Hayes is the President. 14 . . . To have the enterprise entirely withdrawn from those who originated it — and won the victory, is certainly not just.15

The Board of Control, reluctantly headed by Governor West, responded to its assignment and "early in November 1886 leased for one year, with privilege of two, at a monthly rental of $45.00, a property in an excellent and desirable neighborhood." The lot contained a large twostory brick house with an additional three-room cottage in the rear. Both were suitably furnished for the care and comfort of anticipated occupants. Upon recommendation of officers of the Association, Dr. Ruth W. Wood of Kansas City was employed and placed in charge. Finally announcement was made "to all those thought to be in sympathy with the p r o j e c t . . . its readiness for the reception of all legal applicants." 16 The first report of the Board of Control to the President on November 25, 1887, announced the opening of the Home on November 27, 1886, that it has received within its walls to the present time, of the class prescribed by law, twenty-seven as follows: from December 1886 through February 1887 —twelve persons-—3 women and 9 children; in the second quarter, six — two women and four children; in the third quarter, eight — four women and four children — also one child born in the "House." 17

The report included a separate return by Mrs. Jeanette Ferry, president of the Association, and made two major recommendations — to liberalize the legal requirements for admission to the Home and that some other agency than the Board of Control should be selected as disbursing agent of the funds. The board supported this suggestion by recommending that 14 Mrs. N e w m a n m a d e repeated use of expressions of support from national women's organizations including "the National Women's Christian Temperance Union, with Mrs. Willard as president; the National Women's H o m e Missionary Society, Mrs. Rutherford B. Hayes, president ; the Presbyterian Missionary Society . . . and three hundred thousand women representing the highest standard of christian homes in this country have by official authority memorialized this Congress in behalf of this appropriation." Q u o t e from Honorable Isaac Struble in the House on October 4, 1888, when the H o m e Association applied for additional funds. U.S., Congressional Record, 50th Cong., 1st Sess., 1887-88, X I X , P a r t 10, 556. 15

Territorial Papers, No. 60, P. & M . ( N A ) . Ibid., No. 77. U t a h Territory, First Report of the Chairman of Board of Control of Industrial Home for Utah Territory, November 25, 1887 (Salt Lake City, 1888). 17 Delegate J o h n T. Caine commented on the very few who were admitted to the H o m e the first year, " a n d this number was secured by a systematic and persistent canvass of almost every settlement in the Territory." U.S., Congressional Record, 50th Cong., 1st Sess., 1887—88, X I X , Part 10, 584. 16


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Utah Historical Quarterly

the Executive Committee of the Association be constituted a board for the purpose. 18 The annual report for 1888 showed a decrease in the number of refugees accepted in the Home which included nineteen, of whom five were women and twelve children.19 Nevertheless, the Association purchased a lot on Fifth East between First and Second South streets and commenced building operations. After available finances were exhausted, an appeal to Washington brought further congressional legislation on October 19,20 including an appropriation to erect o r complete . . . a building a d a p t e d a n d designed to carry o u t the purposes of this Act a n d which w h e n entirely completed . . . shall not in cost exceed t h e sum of fifty t h o u s a n d dollars . . . a n d a further sum is hereby a p p r o p r i a t e d to complete t h e work above m e n t i o n e d not exceeding t h e sum of twenty-four t h o u s a n d dollars. 2 1

In response to Mrs. Ferry's recommendations, controlling admissions to the Home were liberalized to include first legal wives, women and girls with polygamous surroundings in danger of being coerced into polygamy, girls of polygamous parentage anxious to escape from polygamous influences, and women and girls who have been proselyted elsewhere and removed to the territory in ignorance of the existence there of polygamy. The building was placed in the "custody of the Industrial Christian Home Association of Utah Territory to be used and occupied by it for the purpose of aiding in the suppression of polygamy." Finally in a transfer of authority "the said Utah Commission shall hereafter act as the board of control over said Association, both in the erection of said building and in the conduct of the work of the Association hereafter." 22 The Industrial Home was not only opposed to the Mormons as an affront to their community but it also became a political issue wih Republicans supporting and Democrats opposing it. Governor West was reluctant to accept the reports upon which the promoters based their claim for congressional appropriations. He made an independent survey of the Mormon polygamous community and when his findings failed to 18

Territorial Papers, No. 77, P. & M . ( N A ) . T h e r e being a question as to how many of the applicants admitted to the Home were actually polygamy refugees to justify further congressional appropriations, Isaac Struble listed ten women u p to October 6, 1888, who could qualify as related to the polygamy problem. U.S., Congressional Record, 50th Cong., 1st Sess., 1887-88, X I X , Part 10, 5 5 5 - 6 4 . 20 Ibid. Isaac Struble, in support of the appropriation, gave us reasons for the currently low number of occupants in the H o m e as the present unsatisfactory rented housing and opposition from the Mormons. O n e public letter which he quoted referred to the H o m e as "conceived in falsehood, born of prejudice, being reared and fondled by their bitterest enemies and the devil's benediction rests upon it." 21 Sundry Civil Appropriation Bill, U . S . , Statutes at Large, X X V , Chap. 1210, p . 584. 22 Ibid. 19


Industrial Christian

271

Home

'

,

MMMmM\

Mmm^mm-mmm'

y-:M}MM:9'M^MiMM.

IlISHfLl 1

, i- Âť, ..

'' ,'

TAg cTta/i Commission, who assumed control of the Industrial Christian Home in 1888 until 1893 when the Home was abandoned. The Commission offices, along with other territorial offices, were in the building until 1896 when Utah was granted statehood. From left to right are A. S. Paddock, A. L. Thomas, Alex Ramsey, G. L. Godfrey, A. B. Carlton, and J. R. Pettigrew.

support their sweeping charges, he was accused of political motivation. Delegate Caine addressed sympathetic Democrats in Congress when he emphasized the disappointing response of the intended beneficiaries to the enticements of the Home, and, referring to the small numbers, said "and this number was secured by systematic and persistent canvass of almost every settlement in the Territory." 23 The Republican Salt Lake Tribune gave Caine credit for influencing the Democrats in Congress against the project by his assurances that such a Home was not desirable. "But," the newspaper suggested, "it adds a straw to the cumulative evidence that there is a good deal going on of which statehood could be the outcome. " 2 4 23 24

U.S., Congressional Record, 50th Cong., 1st Sess., 1887-88, XIX, Part 10, 584. Salt Lake Tribune, October 4, 1888.


272

Utah Historical Quarterly

The Tribune then continued as unrealistically as the most enthusiastic supporters of the Home to claim "could the idea on which it was originated be carried out, it would from the first week overflow with inmates. There are thousands of wives and destitute polygamous children who would gratefully accept a retreat of that kind." It concluded that the only explanation for Democratic opposition was some kind of alliance with the Utah Democratic majority. The Utah Commission assumed actual control of the building on November 15, 1888.25 The former Board of Control headed by the territorial governor had already taken title to the property on Fifth East in the name of the "Industrial Christian Home Association" which title was promptly conveyed to the United States. It had then contracted for the erection of a brick and stone building to be "used for the purposes intended by the promoters of the scheme and contemplated by the Acts of Congress." The new Board of Control finding the walls of the main building completed and the roof on, gave its approval of the plans and construction. The Home when completed in June 1889, included, in addition to an office and several service areas, forty sleeping rooms which could be increased to fifty if required. The structure was three-stories high with a basement and two wings, north and south, of equal height "which add very much to the symmetry of the building and the beauty of the architecture." Street cars passing close by made the Home readily accessible to the center of the city. About the first of June the removal was made from the rented building to the new Home where the inmates "were comfortably installed and most pleasantly situated." However, the new building, together with an annual $4,000 maintenance appropriation, failed to attract the expected number of occupants which dropped to nine in August of 1889. Of these six were women and three men. The December 19 report of the Commission reflected doubt as to the success of the project and the next year, August 22, 1890, it complained "Thus far but few of these classes have availed themselves of the munificence of the Government by accepting the home thus generously offered them." 26 When the number of inmates remained about twenty for 1892, the Commission, in October, admitted failure of the project. 25 T h e following description of the Industrial H o m e and its occupancy appears in U.S., U t a h Commission, Report of the Utah Commission to the Secretary of the Interior, 1889 (Washington, D . C , 1889), 1-4. 26 U.S., D e p a r t m e n t of the Interior, Messages and Documents, 1890-1891 (Washington, D . C , 1892), I I I . U.S., U t a h Commission, Report of the Utah Commission to the Secretary of the Interior, 1890 (Washington, D . C , 1890), 20.


Industrial Christian Home

273

I t is a conceded fact t h a t this institution has not been as successful as was hoped for by its friends in inducing a larger n u m b e r of those for w h o m it was intended or those w h o were expected to accept t h e benefits . . . . T h e question has been raised several times as to w h e t h e r it would not be better to discontinue this charitable institution a n d work a n d allow the building to be t u r n e d over to the G o v e r n m e n t to be used for other purposes. 2 7

The polygamy issue having been ostensibly closed with the issuance of the Manifesto in September of 1890 by Wilford Woodruff, president of the Mormon church, the Utah territorial legislature stirred the wrath of the Executive Committee of the Home by petitioning Congress to turn the building over to the use of the Salt Lake City public schools. The Gentile ladies, including Mrs. Ferry, president; Mrs. Allen, secretary; and Mrs. Newman reacted vigorously on March 15, 1892, W e protest against the giving of $60,000 w o r t h of property, the moneyed value of the H o m e to those w h o never w a n t e d the h o m e in their midst. Congress a p p r o p r i a t e d this money for a G o v e r n m e n t institution; w e ask t h a t it so remain . . . we ask t h a t the h o m e be continued the coming year, for its original purpose a n d in accordance with t h e law establishing the home. 2 8

So it remained for another year operating on the final $4,000 congressional appropriation made August 5, 1892.29 On April 12 the Grand Army of the Republic headquarters Department of Utah petitioned for occupation of the building.30 In spite of strenuous efforts by Mrs. Newman in Washington to secure operating funds, no more were forthcoming. On May 22 the Utah Commission advised the Secretary of the Treasury that the Industrial Home would cease operations on June 15, 1893, and applied for permission to occupy it as an office building. 31 It added that there was ample room for the other federal officials in Utah as well. On June 1, the Treasury Department wired permission. Subsequently on June 15, Henry W. Lawrence, chairman of the Executive Board of the Industrial Home sounded the Home's death knell. Addressing the Utah Commission, he wrote, "I am instructed by the Board of Directors to turn over and deliver to you as the 'Board of Control' the 'Industrial Home Building' and grounds in this City with the furniture and fittings therein." 32 The Association accordingly transferred possession of the building 27

U.S., Congress, House, 52d Cong., 2d Sess., 1892-93, House Misc. Doc. 6, pp. 1-4. Territorial Papers, No. 81, P. & M., Polygamy (NA). 29 U.S., Statutes at Large, XXVII, p. 385. 30 Territorial Papers, No. 85, Polygamy Home (NA). 31 Ibid., No. 89, Polygamy File (NA). 32 Ibid. 28


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and contents to the Utah Commission and moved out of the Home on July 1, 1893. On the same day the president of the Salt Lake Board of Education petitioned the Secretary of the Treasury 33 in Washington for use of the building for a high school in the city.34 The Commission moved into the Home in July, followed soon thereafter by the governor of the territory, the adjutant general, secretary, and U.S. mining inspector.35 Certain alterations were permitted inside the building to accommodate the office requirements of the officials and the following year provision was made for gas heating. The 1894-95 session of the Utah territorial legislature convened in the Home. In the meantime the Enabling Act to allow Utah statehood was passed by Congress July 16, 1894. On May 6, 1895, a state constitution was adopted in convention and ratified by public vote on November 5, together with election of state officers. The Utah Commission dispatched its chairman, J. R. Letcher, to Washington on December 14, to deliver to the President the new state constitution in anticipation of his proclamation of Utah's admission to the Union. The emissary was also to confer with the Secretary of the Interior in relation to "closing up the business of this Commission and as to the disposition of the records and the government property in custody of the Board." Chairman Letcher addressed the Secretary of the Interior recommending that an application from Governor-elect Heber M. Wells, for permission to locate state offices temporarily in the Home, be granted. 36 Secretary Hoke Smith replied on January 7, 1896, granting permission for such use of the Home "free of rent for 90 days after which some rental agreement would be made." 37 Congress passed a joint resolution on January 4 directing the territorial governor and secretary to turn their offices over to the new state officials, including "all furniture and fixtures of their respective offices and all property of like character belonging to the United States including that held by the board known as the Utah Commission."38 Governor Heber M. Wells and Secretary J. T. Hammond moved into the Home and, on April 1, 1896, signed receipts for official records 33 Ownership of the property rested with the Treasury Department, but the Secretary refused management of it. 34 Territorial Papers, R.G. 48, Office of Secretary, P. & M. File ( N A ) . 35 Chairman J. R. Letcher letter of December 14, 1895, included in U.S., U t a h Commission, Report of the Utah Commission to the Secretary of the Interior. 1896 (Washington, D . C , 1896), 86. 30 Ibid. 37 Ibid., 87. 38 U.S., Statutes at Large, X X I X , p. 461.


Industrial Christian Home

275

and furniture which were turned over to them by the "late" Utah Commission. The state legislature, meeting in January, appointed a committee to make necessary housing arrangements for the rest of the state officers, but without satisfactory results. On January 12, 1897, the governor reported that the Board of Examiners had entered into a four-year contract with Salt Lake County by which all the present state officers were provided with quarters in the City and County Building.39 With neither the state officers nor all the remaining federal officials choosing to locate in the Industrial Home, in July 1899 the government announced that the Home would be sold at auction. On September 7 a special report to the Deseret News from Washington disclosed that "bids were opened by the supervising architect of the Treasury today for the sale of the building and ground of the Industrial Christian Home in Salt Lake City."40 The highest bid was $22,500 offered by Charles B. Litcomb. Passing into private hands, the controversial structure became a family hotel known to Salt Lakers as the Ambassador located at 145 South Fifth East. In 1945 it was purchased by the Ambassador Athletic Club by which it is operated for its members. 39 U t a h State, Message of Governor Heber M. Wells to the Second Legislature of Utah ([Salt Lake City, 1897]), 4 - 5 . 40 Deseret Evening News (Salt Lake C i t y ) , September 7, 1899.

THE INDUSTRIAL

Session of the

State

HOME

T h e r e should be a change in the affairs of the so-called Industrial H o m e . At present it is b u t a roaring farce, a county poor house. T h e objects for which the appropriation was secured have been in no particular achieved. . . . T h e present programme should be stopped. We do not believe that any course of reasoning will justify the present position of the thing. . . . T h e present institution should be closed until the law can be m a d e more explicit, or if that cannot be, then the money should be returned to the Treasury. Congress certainly never intended u n d e r the title of that bill to have opened an alms house, pure and simple, in U t a h . (Salt Lake Daily Tribune,

October 13, 1887.)


REVIEWS AND PUBLICATIONS

Diggings and Doings in Park City. By RAYE CARLESON PRICE. Introduction by L O W E L L T H O M A S . (Salt Lake City: University of Utah Press, 1970. 103 pp. $3.95) Raye Carleson Price's Diggings and Doings in Park City is the third history of that community to be published in recognition of the centennial in 1969 of silver mining in that area. The book is not a comprehensive history, but a charmingly light-hearted potpourri of the past and present of a colorful town. The mixture begins with an Introduction by Lowell Thomas and continues in three sections: the first combines Mrs. Price's written text with a wealth of photographs, old and new; the second is H a r r y Harpster's superb "Photographic Portrait" of contemporary Park City; and the third is a delightful collection of recipes representative of Park City's varied nationalities and ranging from Cornish pastries to homemade soap. The whole combines to recreate, with warmth and skill, the boom town atmosphere which makes clear that what happened at Virginia City happened also in Utah. What truly distinguishes this book is its photographs, which are lavish in number and excellent in quality. Credit for the old-time examples is too sketchily given, but they are a remarkable collection. T h e jewel of the volume is Harry Harpster's "Photographic Por-

trait." Here, in peeling paint and gingerbread trim, in boots and ore buckets and bar stools, and in magnificent faces, are recorded without words the past and present of a community and its people. It is a pity we are told nothing whatever about Harry Harpster himself. Lowell Thomas, in his Introduction, identifies the book's greatest value when he says, "Here is a side of Utah's history that needed to be told, . . . the establishment of a non-Mormon island in a sea of Latter-day Saints . . . . " Because the Mormon migration so dominates (and rightly) the history of this state, we too easily accept it as the entire history. Slowly, and especially over the last five years, I have come to appreciate the contribution of Utah's nonMormon citizens, and I am delighted to see their histories published. It is important that we meet Park City's Cornishmen, Scots, Irishmen, Chinese, and Scandinavians •— they are part of our historical heritage. Utah hosted the Western Governors' Conference at Park City from June 7 to June 11. To set the proper tone for their visit among the Parkites, each governor and his lady found a copy of Mrs. Price's book in their room when they arrived. LUCYBETH C. RAMPTON

First Lady State of Utah


Reviews and Publications A Navajo Saga. By KAY and R u s s BENNETT. (San Antonio, Texas: The Naylor Company, 1969. 239 pp. $6.95) No more can it be said that all the histories of the American Indian are written by whites. The jacket of A Navajo Saga tells us that Kay Bennett is a Navajo married to a Missouri-born husband, who researched the activities of the non-Indians presented in the book, while Kay wrote of Navajo life. This delightfully written story of the days preceding, during, and following the concentration-camp experience of 1864 to 1868 fills a long-felt need. It has been told by whites, both prejudiced against and in favor of the Navajos but, as far as this reviewer knows, always based upon the written records of government officials. The book now before us is based upon Kay Bennett's remembrance of tales often told her by her own family — the chief character in the book was her grandmother — and, it must be said, aided by her own imagination. It is a historical novel rather than a scientific history; for example she frequently tells us what people were thinking and mentions details which, while they add greatly to the enjoyment of reading, would hardly have been handed down by word of mouth. Of real value, too, is the Treaty of 1868, of which the author says "Twenty six headmen made their marks, whereby they agreed to the provisions of a treaty which had been explained to them but which they only partially understood" — an understatement which anyone with even a rudimentary acquaintance with the Navajo can well appreciate if he were to try to translate "degrees of longitude," not to mention the confusion in the minds of the soldiers who drew up the treaty on the subject of latitude and longitude! But these are trifling matters for us today. More important are such points as the Navajo agreeing never to "kill or scalp

277 white men or attempt to harm them." This point, as is perhaps not commonly known, was used by Navajos drafted in the second world war, since Germans are white men — and that is why so many of them were sent to Japan to kill yellow men! It may be a feeble defense of our government which has been accused of failing to provide schools adequate for the Navajo children, to recall that the provision to supply a school and teacher for every thirty Navajo children was "to continue for not less than ten years," i.e., to 1878. So much for treaty. Justice is something else again. This reviewer may be pardoned for riding two of his hobbies: (1) that serious books in the English language should be in English, and (2) that an expert in one field of knowledge should not try to deal dogmatically with material in other fields. A sixth grade pupil would be rebuked, I think, for confusing the verb "to lie" and "to lay." It comes as a shock to read "everyone laid down and slept" (p. 15). But a more severe shock comes when one reads in the Preface: "In its present form the Christian belief is in a Holy Trinity, three manifestations of God as a creating spirit, a preserving spirit called Christ, and a destroying spirit called the Holy Ghost" (p. ix), and a little later "Virgin Mary might be considered as another manifestation of God, the Preserver." It should hardly be necessary to say that "in its present form" Christian belief is what it was at the beginning and as the fourth century Council of Constantinople expressed it in what is now known as the Nicene Creed: "We believe . . . in the Holy Ghost, Lord [i.e., God] and Life-Giver." No destroyer He! This reviewer has been a student of Christian doctrine for more than sixty years and has yet to find a trace of any Christian body which considers the Holy Ghost as a destroying spirit, or any


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which regards t h e Virgin M a r y as a manifestation of God. While perhaps not great art, the illustrations are attractive line drawings a n d show a knowledge of Navajo dress in the period in which the narrative is laid. Tourists today think of t h e velveteen, long-sleeved blouse, a n d t h e full, anklelength skirt as typical traditional N a v a jo dress. B u t actually this dress was u n k n o w n until captivity a t F o r t Sumner, w h e n t h e real traditional woven beel of the Navajo w o m e n wore out, a n d was replaced by " m o d e r n A m e r i c a n " garments of t h e period —• later ornam e n t e d by t h e Navajo w o m e n with silver a n d bead decorations. I t is t h e old beel which K a y portrays. A book w o r t h having a n d reading. H . BAXTER LIEBLER

Missionary Monument Utah:

A Students'

History.

By

to the Navajo Valley, Utah

Guide

to

Localized

EVERETT

L.

COOLEY.

E d i t e d by C L I F F O R D L. L O R D .

(New

Y o r k : Teachers College Press, C o lumbia University, 1968. x + 38 p p . $.75) Dr. Cooley, former director of t h e U t a h State Historical Society, has organized a remarkable a m o u n t of pertin e n t information in this small volume. Chapters o n t h e land, original inhabitants, explorers a n d first settlers, settlem e n t a n d expansion, a n d after statehood a r e followed by some suggested field trips a n d a selected Bibliography. A five-page I n t r o d u c t i o n by Clifford L o r d encourages research in local history a n d suggests some basic research attitudes a n d practices. D r . Cooley's m a n y years of study in U t a h history combined with his concise writing style have enabled h i m to produce a n excellent students' guide to t h e state. H e conveys a sympathetic understanding of U t a h ' s history, especially the u n i q u e aspects, without sacrificing his

Quarterly

objectivity. F o r example, in discussing the causes of t h e U t a h W a r , he says: "While exaggerated in both degree a n d kind, the rumors h a d m u c h basis of fact. T h e courts established by Congress were secondary to those created by the U t a h n s to administer their kind of justice, politics did n o t operate along national party lines. T h e r e were no Whigs ; Democrats, o r (later) Republicans. O n e slate of officers was chosen usually by the church leaders, and these were 'sustained' a t the polls. Opposition candidates were discouraged, a n d party government was nonexistent. Schools, although partially supported by local taxes, taught M o r m o n doctrine a n d were completely M o r m o n oriented. T h e Indians, considered special charges by the M o r m o n s because of t h e teachings of t h e Book of M o r m o n , were unduly influenced against other white men. A n a r m y of perhaps 5,000 U t a h militiamen stood ready to respond to t h e call of their military leaders w h o were also their civil a n d ecclesiastical leaders. And, of course, polygamy was widely practiced. "But although these conditions existed, they were enlarged a n d distorted by t h e disgruntled appointees in U t a h w h o found themselves resisted a n d resented a t every turn. T h e Utahns, 99 p e r cent M o r m o n s , w a n t e d men of their own choosing to administer their justice a n d preside over them. T h e long list of abuses a t t h e h a n d s of non-Mormons in Missouri a n d in Illinois prompted t h e M o r m o n s to move to their isolated refuge in U t a h a n d to create a state where they would be the majority. I n this, their desires were thwarted by the creation of territorial government r a t h e r t h a n statehood. And so at every opportunity, t h e U t a h n s applied to Congress for statehood. O n six different occasions they called a convention a n d drafted a constitution only to have it rejected in Washington. I t is no wonder m u t u a l ill-will existed between t h e U t a h n s a n d those sent to govern them."


Reviews and Publications Thus, in two short paragraphs he summarizes the problems and attitudes that characterize m u c h of the territorial history. Since over half of the volume is devoted to U t a h ' s history before the M o r m o n settlement, one m a y wonder at the author's emphasis. Certainly a review of the geography of the area together with a description of the early I n d i a n inhabitants, is important, as are the explorations of the region by Spanish priests, British a n d American fur t r a p pers, and others; but it appears that the p r e - M o r m o n period is allotted more space t h a n is warranted in so small a volume. An interesting reversal of the famous "This is the Place" statement attributed to Brigham Y o u n g is m a d e when the author writes: " T h e M o r m o n s , after locating c a m p in the center of present Salt Lake City, began flooding the parched soil and plowing. W h e n their leader Brigham Young entered the valley on July 24, several acres of corn, potatoes, and beans were already sown. By their action, the pioneers h a d assured Brigham Young t h a t 'This was the Place' where their home would be." T h e a u t h o r has followed the standard a p p r o a c h to the colonization of U t a h when he maintains that " T h e r e never was a more orderly and carefully conceived plan of development for such a large area as t h a t of the M o r m o n experiment in U t a h and the surrounding areas." T h e n follows the usual list of outer-cordon colonies including Salm o n River, San Bernardino, Carson Valley, a n d M o a b . Recent studies indicate that all of these colonies were mistakes or failures a n d that the plans were not quite as orderly or carefully conceived as has been supposed. T h e r e is a minor error in attributing Stephen A. Douglas's quote concerning "cancerous growths on the body politic" to the Republican party platform, but the essence is correct.

279 None of these criticisms should be interpreted as detracting materially from the value of the booklet. It is an excellent survey of U t a h ' s history a n d attractions a n d should be widely distributed. E U G E N E E.

Professor Brigham Young

CAMPBELL

of

History University

Diamondfield Jack: A Study in Frontier Justice. By David H . Grover. ( R e n o : University of N e v a d a Press, 1968. xi 4- 189 p p . $5.00) This is the story of a wild, fast-talking, loudmouthed braggart and compulsive liar who posed as a bad m a n , but like all big mouths was not as dangerous as h e appeared to be. His big m o u t h got him into all kinds of trouble, b u t he apparently never killed a m a n . This book is actually a history of the sheepmen's a n d cattlemen's war in Cassia County, I d a h o , in the 1890's when sheep began to take over the grazing ranges of the West. D i a m o n d field Jack Davis applied for a job on the immense cattle ranch of J o h n Sparks and was hired to keep the sheepm e n from crossing a designated line into cattle country. H e did frighten off some sheepmen, wounding one in an argument, but so far as the record shows never killed anyone. Eventually two sheepmen were killed in Cassia County and because of his bragging Diamondfield Jack a n d his p a r t n e r were accused of the killings and arrested a n d confined in the Cassia County jail. F r o m here on the book tells the story of w h a t should have been called T h e Story of Pioneer Injustice. Jack h a d been promised protection by his employer, J o h n Sparks, a n d to his credit, Sparks went all the way to protect him. T w o famous lawyers were hired. O n e was O r l a n d o W. Powers, the most celebrated lawyer in Salt Lake City, and James H . Hawley, who later


280

Utah Historical Quarterly

b e c a m e quite p r o m i n e n t in I d a h o politics. T h e prosecution contained such names as William E. Borah, then a young lawyer w h o later m a d e a great n a m e for himself in the U n i t e d States Senate. T h e case of Diamondfield Jack Davis versus the State of I d a h o was in the courts for the next six years. T w i c e Davis missed being h u n g by the m a r g i n of a few hours, b u t was saved by m a n y appeals, even to the U . S . Supreme Court. Davis was convicted of m u r d e r p u r e ly by circumstantial evidence. But his case took several very unusual twists which are difficult to understand in these days. First, his p a r t n e r was acquitted a n d set free, although h e was just as guilty as Davis. Second, two other m e n eventually confessed to the m u r ders, b u t were acquitted. J a c k Davis, in spite of the confessions of the real killers, was kept in jail a n d resentenced to d e a t h from time to time for another three years, which is t h e real puzzler in this story of legal injustice. H e was finally p a r d o n e d by the I d a h o Pardons Board, on which the governor was chairman. O d d l y enough, Jack Davis went to N e v a d a after his release, located m a n y rich mining claims a n d b e c a m e wealthy, associated with the big capitalists of N e v a d a (of which J o h n Sparks was then g o v e r n o r ) , a n d was written u p in various magazines, including the Saturday Evening Post. But h a r d luck finally c a u g h t u p with him a n d he died broke in 1949. This is an interesting story of the sheep and cattle w a r in I d a h o . Its principal fault is t h a t the a u t h o r has used too m u c h u n i m p o r t a n t detail, which makes reading somewhat tedious. But h e certainly has done a very complete job of research, which will be of value to researchers. CHARLES KELLY

Author Salt Lake City, Utah

Cowboy and Western Songs: A Comprehensive Anthology. Edited by Austin E. a n d Alta S. Fife. Music Editor M a r y J o Schwab. W i t h illustrations by J. K. Ralston. (New York: Clarkson N . Potter, Inc., 1969. xii 4- 372 p p . $12.50) T h e Fifes of Logan, U t a h , know more cowboy songs, a n d m o r e about them, t h a n anyone living. T h e y now have more t h a n fifty volumes in their private library of materials transcribed from rare publications, as well as copies of virtually all the major manuscript collections of western songlore, plus texts from 78-rpm records. T h e y have sound recordings from oral sources. They know folklore bibliography inside-out, and they understand the western character thoroughly from years of residence a n d field work. I n 1966 they drew on these materials to p r e p a r e a specialists' annotated facsimile edition of T h o r p ' s pioneering 1908 volume Songs of the Cowboys. N o w , from the same publisher, comes their selection for a general audience of songs representing, as they p u t it, the " e t h n i c " music of Western AngloAmerica. Considering t h a t the Fifes selected 128 songs from thousands of choices, a n d were limited by the intended audience of this book to one p a r a g r a p h of commentary per song, they have done a remarkable job. Although the volume does not contain the "200 songs" promised on the dust jacket, it corrals an ample 181 texts. Fifty-three are variants, seemingly r e d u n d a n t , but an invaluable bonus for scholars, and one that few t r a d e publishers will provide. Cowboy songs of about 1870 to 1930 are emphasized, b u t a m u c h wider range of western song is included under such headings as "Frontier Realism," "Love Across Cultures," a n d "Swing Your Partner." I n any such selection a reader may miss his favorites; my own are the Northwest classic "Acres of Clams" and Carl T . Sprague's 1929 recording " T h e


Reviews and Publications Mormon Cowboy." I could have done without "Ragtime Cowboy Joe" for one of them. The criteria for selection were traditionality and authenticity, not some sophisticated standard of completeness or folksiness. The Fifes do not merely reprint other sing-along collections or patch up fragments with borrowed verses and "improved" language. They print songs as they find them, and when they borrow something — say a melody from one source to fit a text from another — they explain. The majority are oral texts, but the roster of published sources sounds like a folksy reading list: Hobo News Folio, Thomas County [Kansas'] Cat, Put's Golden Songster, The Family Guide Songster, Orejana Bull for Cowboys Only, and scores of others. One lapse in the selection principles, it seems to me, is the use about twenty times of "oral" sources that are really professional folklorists. That their songs were frontier favorites in the variants presented is doubtful, but that is the implication. There are many riches in this collection, and only a few nuggets may be displayed in a review. As the Fifes say of one group, the songs are "as numerous and varied as the folks at a Mormon family reunion," and it may be added, as sentimental, reminiscent, and occasionally tough-minded too. We find straight ethnographic data: "We started in to raise our flock Our chickens were the Plymouth Rock, Our cattle were the Jersey fine, And Poland China were our swine." We find the mythic lure and ultimate reality of western life: "But when I left my eastern home, a bachelor so gay, To try to win my way to wealth and fame, I little thought that I'd come down to burning twisted hay,

281 In my little old sod shanty on the claim." We find irony: "Before you try cow-punching, kiss your wife, Take a heavy insurance on your life, Then cut your throat with a barlow knive,—• For it's easier done that way." We find social protest: "I went to the boss to draw my roll He figgered me out nine dollars in the hole. So I'll sell my outfit as fast as I can, And I won't punch cattle for no damn man." And we find pathos: "I'm going to leave old Texas now, They've got no use for the longhorn cow, They've plowed and fenced my cattle range, The people there are all so strange." The Fifes display a marvelous sensitivity towards these "primitive" poems in their comments. They have no patience with "interpretive hanky-panky" or "schmaltzy velvet-lined phrases" (pp. x-xi) in singing style, but they are tuned in to the texts' lyrical and philosophical qualities. They remark cogently on such concepts as "pragmatic Christian materialism" (p. 331) or "Neoplatonic meditation" (p. 326) or even "a kernel of existential truth" (p. 241). In one expansive flight, they suggest that "Stereotyped western images and rhythms, like old lace or a Bach fugue, are interwoven to produce pulsating effects like the beating of the heart or the alternation of night and day" (p. 231). They balance academic language with regional similes like "as popular on the frontier as whiskey or whiskers" and metaphors like "a heap of doggerel you have to plow through." The combined effect is a style that is both refreshing and thought-provoking.


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Utah Historical Quarterly

O n the whole this book represents enlightened popularizing, b u t the scholarly reader will h a v e a few regrets, mainly t h a t h e is denied m o r e of the Fifes' knowledge for the sake of generous margins a n d attractive book p r o d u c tion a n d illustrations. Sources a n d informants are all n a m e d , b u t they remain names only in the abbreviated notes. Little comparative a n n o t a t i o n is given. A few texts are clearly not songs b u t p o e m s ; i.e., "At a Cowboy D a n c e " a n d "A Cowboy's Prayer." Some texts grouped as variants of a single song (i.e., " J o h n n y C a k e " ) really represent several distinct types t h a t share commonplace phrases. A few comments about the wider folk circulation are more cryptic t h a n useful; "fixed in Anglo-Scottish tradition long before t h e West was w o n , " or " W e have it in scores of texts" are examples. T h e general reader m a y w o n d e r h o w nightingales got into a western folksong, w h a t a "broadside" is, or w h a t t h e "scatalogical overtones" are in j o h n n y cake t h a t is "baked b r o w n . " This also brings to m i n d the conspicuous absence of any b a w d y or indecent songs, which of course formed a significant p a r t of the western folk tradition but, understandably, are not to be expected in a book needing a G-rating. I n the Fifes' future western folk song studies the scholars will w a n t m o r e notes, facts, a n d analysis, b u t of the present work we must say, as H e n r y J a m e s did of Treasure Island, t h a t it is "delightful, because it succeeded wonderfully in w h a t it a t t e m p t s . " J A N HAROLD BRUNVAND

Associate Professor of English University of Utah Trail On The Water. By Pearl Baker. (Boulder, C o l o r a d o : Pruett Publishing C o m p a n y , [1969]. 134 p p . $6.95) Pearl Baker is a brave w o m a n for undertaking to write the biography of

controversial Bert Loper. Failing to grasp the psychological undertones as presented by O . Dock M a r s t o n in the excellent Introduction, Mrs. Baker interprets her subject as a young person might regard the senior citizen living next door w h o m she understands t h r o u g h rumor, legend, a n d subjective recitations from the m a n she holds in awe. T h e book provides a homely a n d frequently candid account of Loper's inadequacies, fears, a n d social maladjustments. Trail On The Water will be regarded as a depiction of river history by the buffs w h o lean closer to romance than to objectivity. Except for two entries from t h e journal of D o n Harris, which pertain to Loper's death, the author interprets him from his own views and these usually are distorted. I t is interesting to c o m p a r e C h a p t e r 2 with the Utah Historical Quarterly, V o l u m e X X V I I I (July, 1960), pages 300-2, which makes it easy to reject Loper's version of Russell's "betrayal." M o r e serious t h a n the errors of fact are the errors of omission. This defect is difficult to reconcile since the a u t h o r h a d access to Loper's diaries, and contemporaneous materials are available. Possibly Mrs. Baker would have contributed m o r e to serious scholarship had she presented the L o p e r diaries in their entirety, along with editorial comment, thus allowing the riverman to speak t h r o u g h his own words. After his failure of 1907, Loper carried a b u r d e n of personal doubt which caused h i m to reject society through a self-imposed exile. Thirty-two years later, bolstered by the presence of D o n Harris, Loper resolved his guilt by r u n n i n g every rapid during a low-water traverse of G r a n d Canyon. For this t r i u m p h a n t phase of her subject's life, Mrs. Baker expends eleven words (p. 103). Of t h e thirty-two illustrations in the book, over half are irrelevant to Bert


283

Reviews and Publications Loper's career on the river, and there is not a single view shown which was taken by the man whose first extensive river trip was made for the purpose of a lecture tour illustrated by his own photographs. Several thousand river travelers have examined the boat in which Loper took his last ride. It is drawn up on the talus and tied to a small tree in Marble Canyon. (See Utah Historical Quarterly, Volume 37 [Spring, 1969], pages 258 -59.) This reviewer has heard river neophytes give valid criticism of the design and construction while finding it difficult to believe that such a craft had been visualized and built by a man with over forty years of experience on the Colorado River. Mrs. Baker has a total of seven footnotes in her text. Regretably there is neither index nor bibliography. The format, type, and binding are adequate without being impressive in quality. The publisher has omitted the date of printing and there are typesetting errors on pages 30, 75, and 99. The maps by Robert Price do little to augment the text, and on Plate 3 he locates the Urn at Wahweap instead of at Warm Creek. The book is readable and interesting if considered to be directed at the pulp reader rather than the student of history. P. T. REILLY

North Hollywood,

Author California

Me and Mine: The Life Story of Helen Sekaquaptewa. As told to Louise Udall. Illustrated by Phillip Sekaquaptewa. (Tucson: University of Arizona Press, 1969. 262 pp. $3.95) Narrated by Helen Sekaquaptewa, a Hopi woman of "traditional" Oraibi parentage, and recorded by Louise Udall, this account makes a most readable and worthwhile book. It is candid and direct and moves with a convincing

simplicity through the entire experience of Mrs. Sekaquaptewa and her family. To all appearance Louise Udall has done a remarkable job of keeping herself out of the account. It is told in the first person of the Hopi woman with a fidelity that is deviated only rarely. The most notable instance of editorial elaboration is in connection with the 1906 division of Oraibi "friendlies" and "hostiles" that saw the latter group forced from the village because they refused to make modest accommodations to the white man's way. Contemporary reports of white observers filed by the Bureau of Indian Affairs were studied by Mrs. Udall. Some use of this material is denoted by italicized text, others by quotation marks. In still other places the context seems to suggest that the Sekaquaptewa story was supplemented by information from these written versions. Although this constitutes no serious problem, footnotes identifying the use of outside material might have added to the clarity of the account. The characters of Helen Sekaquaptewa and those near her come through strong and clear. Honesty and a courageous and practical effort to deal with the everyday challenges of life are patent. Avoiding any tendency to rebel and even with occasional resignation, the central figures seek adjustment with the various forces that surround them. With intelligence and not a little sacrifice they emerge into the white man's world while holding fast much that is dear in the environment and tradition of their people. It is a success story. The process of adaptation as visualized in the Bureau of Indian Affair's policy of educating young Hopis bears fruit in the lives of the Sekaquaptewa family. In addition to being a charming and delightful narrative, this work makes a serious contribution to the history of the Hopi people. In recent decades the genesis of Oraibi village has been the


284

Utah Historical

object of numerous studies. Helen Sekaquaptewa's eyewitness account brings an additional dimension to these. Laying quiet stress upon the relation social change bears to shifting physical environment, the work focuses several problems of the twentieth century Hopi experience. As an example may be cited changes in Hopi farming methods that have been explained in accepted studies as the result of natural forces. According to Mrs. Sekaquaptewa, erosion along Oraibi Wash arose from the failure of villagers to spread the water over the fields that lay in its course when the "friendlies-hostiles" conflict disrupted normal routine. Untended because of the expulsion of ceremonial leaders upon whom rested responsibility for rites initiating the irrigation process, Oraibi Wash's water cut away the fields. Thus new modes of agriculture were required and the progressive deterioration of old Oraibi ensured. Me and Mine is a happy addition to the historical literature of the American Indian and makes an important contribution to the history of the Southwest. CHARLES S. PETERSON

Director Utah State Historical Society My Life with History, An Autobiography. By John D. Hicks. (Lincoln: University of Nebraska Press, 1968. ix 4-366 pp. $5.95) In My Life with History, Professor Emeritus John D. Hicks is writing for two audiences: the circle of family members and close friends whose interest is in the author as a person, and the larger circle of professional associates and students, whose concern is with the historian and his times. The two audiences are not entirely compatible and the two missions are not fully integrated, but both groups will find much in the book to inform, delight, even to inspire. As a doctoral student of Professor Hicks at Berkeley and a visitor in the

Quarterly

Hicks summer home at Dutch Flat, this reviewer stands in the zone of overlap of the two circles, and for him both the man and the teacher-author take on new dimensions in this relaxed and thoughtful memoir. Most widely known for his two-volume text, The Federal Union and The American Nation (4th ed., 1963, 1964), its one-volume abridgement, A History of American Democracy (3rd ed., 1966), and his contribution to the New American Nation Series, Republican Ascendancy, 1921-1933 (1960), the author is also remembered by every graduate student in American history in the last generation for his monograph, The Populist Revolt (1931). His teaching career took him to Hamline College, North Carolina College for Women, Nebraska University, Wisconsin University, and the University of California at Berkeley. In the last three institutions he held chairmanships, deanships, and other major administrative positions. The good will and good humor, the thoroughness, the unflappability, the moral conservatism, and the nonevangelical political liberalism which characterized his professional activities are reflected in My Life with History. The thesis is stated in the Preface: ' 'The United States was born in the country and has moved to the city.' . . . This wise aphorism not only summarizes the history of our nation; it is also the story of my life" (p. viii). The Hicks story begins in the Missouri homes of an often-moving Methodist minister, and as one shares the experiences of a young man "of WAS Pish background" through a flirtation with the ministry and a stint as a rural Wyoming schoolteacher, the Turnerian flavor of the later lectures on American social and frontier history becomes quite understandable. Acknowledging his bias, Professor Hicks notes, "The truth, perhaps, is that Turner was right for his time. It was nineteenth—


285

Reviews and Publications not twentieth century America t h a t h e was trying to explain" (p. 6 2 ) . O n e moving into history will find good advice o n lecturing, writing, counseling students, a n d relating to fellow teachers a n d administrators scattered throughout t h e book. I n connection with one of his deanships, Hicks observes t h a t "professors are terrible infighters; they operate with no holds or weapons b a r r e d " (p. 1 4 9 ) . His technique is characterized deprecatingly as keeping peace by holding as few meetings a n d changing as few regulations a n d procedures as possible. Y e t o n e m a y fairly assume t h a t more affirmative administrative a n d diplomatic gifts led to his becoming dean of the G r a d u a t e D i vision a n d c h a i r m a n of the History D e p a r t m e n t at Berkeley, a n d then chairm a n of t h e key Committee of Seven t h a t mediated between regents a n d faculty in the loyalty-oath controversy, 1949-50. T h e account of t h a t crisis makes interesting reading in connection with today's campus tumult, toward which, incidentally, Professor Hicks expresses little sympathy for most student militants. Frequent rotation in office is his key recommendation for university administration. T h e reader who seeks social history a n d commentary will have to m a k e his way through m u c h t h a t will seem to him trivial, even banal. T o t h e Hicks grandchildren, by no means least a m o n g t h e audience to which t h e autobiography is directed, this m a y n o t seem the case. "Never once," writes Professor Hicks at the close of My Life with History, "have I regretted m y choice of a p r o fession" (p. 3 5 6 ) . F e w have practiced t h a t vocation m o r e successfully or communicated its joys a n d challenges to students more effectively. RICHARD D.

POLL

Professor of History Brigham Young University

The Grand Colorado: The Story of a River and its Canyons. By T . H . W A T K I N S and

CONTRIBUTORS

(WIL-

LIAM E. B R O W N , J R . , R O B E R T C. E U LER,

HELEN

NASH,

ROGER

HOSMER, OLMSTED,

RODERICK WALLACE

S T E G N E R , P A U L S. T A Y L O R , a n d

ROB-

ERT A. W E I N S T E I N ) . F o r e w o r d by W A L L A C E S T E G N E R . Color p h o t o g r a p h y by P H I L I P H Y D E . (Palo A l t o :

American West Publishing C o m p a n y , 1969. 310 p p . $15.00) This is t h e finest book sent to this reviewer in a long time. T h e format is beautiful a n d there a r e m o r e t h a n two h u n d r e d photographs, m a n y of them in color. Geographic features are always interesting, b u t they assume full m e a n ing only in terms of people. H e r e is the complete story of o n e of the most interesting rivers of t h e West told in terms of t h e people w h o have been intimately tied u p with i t : Indians w h o lived along its banks a n d in its canyons, explorers w h o sought to conquer a n d use it, priests w h o tried to t a m e it, photographers w h o tried to c a p t u r e its elusiveness o n film, poets w h o were moved to creativity by t h e awesome splendor of its might in cutting t h r o u g h t h e crust of t h e earth, geologists w h o are p r e sented with a n open textbook o n t h e formation of t h e earth, a n d m o d e r n tourists w h o stand in wonder a t the gaping hole c u t by t h e river. I t is fitting t h a t this book should b e published in t h e anniversary year of M a j o r J o h n Wesley Powell's descent of the river t h r o u g h the G r a n d Canyon, thus filling in t h e last blank o n t h e m a p of t h e U n i t e d States. T h e book is divided into three p a r t s : " T h e M y t h , " " T h e Conquest," a n d " T h e Legacy," followed by a n A p p e n dix which is a n abridgement of Clarence E. D u t t o n ' s m o n o g r a p h , The Tertiary History of the Grand Canon District. " T h e M y t h " consists of writing down w h a t is known about the earliest inhabitants a n d their successors of the G r a n d


Utah Historical Quarterly

286 Canyon and environs for over four thousand years. This is followed by detailing the work of Spanish conquistadores and missionaries a n d by allowing those people to tell the story themselves. T h e Spanish are followed by the mountain m e n and finally by J o h n Wesley Powell. " T h e Conquest" details problems faced by the U . S. in trying to harness the power and water of the Colorado for the benefit of the Southwest. " T h e Legacy" tries to detail the G r a n d Canyon as a national experience, a pride, a n d a heritage and an area t h a t needs to be preserved as part of the national heritage. T h e editor is to be congratulated on his choice of contributors and Wallace Stegner of Beyond the Hundredth Meridian fame has set the book in perspective in the Foreword. T h e book should stand beside Gregory C r a m p t o n ' s Standing Up Country on the bookshelf of every person interested in the Southwest. R O B E R T W.

Chairman,

Ghost Towns ROBERT

DELANEY

History Department Fort Lewis College Durango, Colorado

of the American SILVERBERG.

(New

West. By York:

T h o m a s Y. Crowell Company, 1968. 310 p p . $4.50) Ghost Towns of the American West is a popularized, entertaining, and easyto-read account of the rise a n d fall of several rip-roaring far western mining towns. I t is by no means a scholarly work (nor does it a p p e a r that the author intended it to b e ) , but its appeal is to the western history buff who wants to relive the adventure a n d excitement of the frontier. T h e book is filled with colorful descriptions and entertaining anecdotes that should stimulate the imagination of any ghost town tourist. A typical anecdote is the story of Peter Nichols of Columbia, California, who was con-

victed of m u r d e r and sentenced to death. At the same time, citizens of Columbia h a d obtained ten thousand signatures on a petition to transfer the state capital to their town. Nichols's enterprising lawyer somehow got hold of the petition, cut off the p a r t about changing the capital, and substituted a petition asking that Nichols be spared. T h e governor was so impressed with the large support for Nichols that he signed the petition, thus canceling the death sentence. If the book was written primarily for entertainment, it comes off well. For a person who wants to know the real history a n d significance of western ghost towns, however, the book leaves m u c h to be desired. It is filled with misleading historical assumptions, such as the idea that all ghost towns were the result of the mining frontier. Further, there is no attempt to catalogue in any way the towns of the past, or even to suggest how many there were. Only one U t a h town, for example, Silver Reef, is mentioned. T h e Bibliography is woefully lacking in depth, and does not even list the several popular, well-illustrated publications on western ghost towns by Florin Lambert, or the entertaining volume by Nell Murbarger, Ghost Towns of the Glory Trail, which far outshines Silverberg's book. Furthermore, the authenticity of his historical accounts are generally open to question when it is realized t h a t the author relied mainly on popular writers of the day and on sensationalist newspaper accounts. Nearly all of the story of Virgina City, Nevada, for example, is taken from the writings of M a r k Twain. This is not to say that the book does not have accurate material in it, for the author presents some good material on the wealth of certain mines, the rise of selected mining companies, and the excitement caused by initial strikes. T h e emphasis, however, is on the excitement, and the tendency is to build upon the legendary tradition of the mining camps. T h e


287

Reviews and Publications a u t h o r concludes with a statement t h a t will make almost any professional historian either throw the book down in disgust or chuckle with delight at having finished such a well-written piece of historical fiction. W r o t e Silverberg: " W e who have seen too m a n y western movies a n d television plays sometimes tend to think that the legends of the Wild West were all invented by m o d e r n scriptwriters — b u t the ghost towns remain, and their battered ruins testify t h a t all this did in fact h a p p e n , t h a t the legends are true, t h a t behind all the tall tales lies reality." T h e appearance of another book on ghost towns raises some questions of historical interpretation far beyond the scope or intent of this book, but which should receive brief comment. The study of towns which have come and gone is significant for reasons other t h a n the interest generated by a few colorful stories. These towns were p a r t of the process of frontier building, a n d historians need to spend m o r e time on p r o b lems such as the process of community building; how a n d why political organizations came into being; comparative studies on political structure and processes ; the n a t u r e of social organization; the kind of everyday life enjoyed by residents of isolated communities; the relationship between these camps a n d the development of regional economy; the development of business organizations as related to or influenced by these boom towns; t h e social a n d economic results of the closing of a town. These and other interpretative questions are t h e real challenges t h a t historians should take u p in order to m a k e the study of western ghost towns significant. I t is not the fact that they are ghosts, b u t the fact that they were towns t h a t is important. A fine start in this direction is D u a n e A. Smith's Rocky Mountain Mining Camps (Bloomington, 1967), b u t it is only a beginning a n d it is hoped

t h a t more scholars will take u p a serious study of t h e u r b a n frontier in the West. J A M E S B.

ALLEN

Associate Professor of History Brigham Young University Enough Rope: The inside story of the censure of Senator Joe McCarthy by his colleagues — the controversial hearings that signaled the end of a turbulent career and a fearsome era in American public life. By A R T H U R V . W A T K I N S . ( N e w Jersey: PrenticeHall, Inc., a n d Salt L a k e City: U n i versity of U t a h Press, 1969. xii + 302

pp.

$6.95)

Probably a more enigmatic demagogue t h a n Senator J o e M c C a r t h y has never graced the American political scene, nor has there been a more effective a n d vociferous individual willing to use a n d abuse people for whatever ends he sought. M u c h has been written about Senator Joe M c C a r t h y and the impact h e m a d e in American politics during the Eisenhower years. M u c h of w h a t has been written has been speculative, for M c C a r t h y remained an enigma until his death. Those works written by former M c C a r t h y staff m e m bers hardly qualify as objective. T h e present book by one of the protagonists of the M c C a r t h y d r a m a is intended to be a primary source for "future political scientists" w h o wish to analyze this period of American history. It is, however, m u c h m o r e t h a n a simple account of the work of the Senate Committee to Study Censure Charges (the Watkins C o m m i t t e e ) . It is personal testimony of a m a n ' s belief in fair play; it is a treatise o n the legality a n d role of congressional investigating committees; it is an individual's personal observation of the personality of Joe M c C a r t h y ; it is a sober look at the inner workings of the most exclusive club in the world-—• the U . S. Senate; a n d , in h u m b l e retrospect, it is a postscript to the political career of a senator of w h o m


288 Time Magazine said: "A man little known in the past who should be long remembered in the future." It is also a man's failure to grasp the realities of the political game, for with an almost novice's naivety, Watkins expected those who lauded and praised him for his unselfish service and devotion to duty to give him long-term support. Instead, he was betrayed — a feeling he is justified in maintaining. Watkins's selection as a member of the Senate Committee to Study Censure Charges was made because he eschewed publicity and was almost never in the limelight, and he had excellent experience as a lawyer and judge. His role as chairman was inevitable, for he was the senior Republican senator among the three lawyers on the committee in a Republican-controlled Senate. His dedication to duty made him accept the post and helped him resign himself to the ordeal that was to follow. There was widespread belief that the committee would be ineffectual because Senator McCarthy had undeniable general support among highly vocal right-wing groups for his ostensible fight against communism. It was generally conceded that the "lion had been thrown into a den of lambs." Watkins, however, was determined not to let the committee proceedings degenerate into the fiasco of the ArmyMcCarthy hearings. He was zealous in conducting the hearings under the Senate floor rules (including the rules against smoking). The initial session under his tutelage let McCarthy and the world know that he was intent on discharging his responsibilities firmly. When McCarthy attempted to make a mockery and circus of the proceedings, as he had done before, Chairman Watkins pounded the gavel on the table, silencing the junior senator from Wisconsin in a manner without precedent. McCarthy was heard to utter "the most unheard of thing I ever heard of" as he left the room.

Utah Historical

Quarterly

The author details the inner-workings of the committee and the reasons for dropping many of the charges against McCarthy. As members of the Select Committee, the senators represented not their respective constituencies, but the United States Senate, and they were determined not to undermine it or to lay precedent which could hamper future congressional investigations. The committee decided not to consider McCarthy's open invitation to the two million federal employees to give him information on "graft, corruption, or treason" as justification for censure. They did not want to limit Congress' own access to information. Other charges, such as McCarthy's use of confidential and classified information, were likewise dropped. The Select Committee did recommend that Senator McCarthy be condemned for his contemptuous conduct towards the Gillette Subcommittee on Privileges and Elections, which had attempted to investigate, in 1951-52, his role in the retirement of Senator Baldwin and the defeat of Senator Tydings's bid for re-election. The Watkins Committee also recommended censure for his "inexcusable" and "reprehensive" behavior towards General Ralph Zwicker when he had appeared before McCarthy's Committee. Once the Watkins Committee made the report to the Senate, the ordeal of the debate began. It was during this time that Senator Watkins was subjected to exhaustive and abusive questioning by McCarthy, "grandstanding" to the reporters in the galleries. McCarthy's technique was to read from the Record, newspaper clippings, and other sources under the guise of asking questions, but in reality trying to use up the last reserve of Watkins's strength This action moved Senator Wallace Bennett to amend the censure resolution to include McCarthy's abuse of the chairman. In a tactical move to preserve support for the committee's report, Watkins agreed to drop the cen-


Reviews and Publications sure charges for McCarthy's abuse of General Zwicker. When the final vote was taken, Senator Joe McCarthy was "condemned" on two counts: (1) his behavior towards the Gillette Subcommittee on Privileges and Elections; and (2) for his treatment of Chairman Watkins. Once the Senate Censure Resolution was adopted, McCarthy's power and influence began to wane, ending with his death two years later. In retrospect, Watkins correctly concludes that "McCarthy got his comeuppance not for his abuse of individual witnesses or his fight against communism but for his contempt of the Senate." In perhaps an ironic twist of fate, Watkins's service and dedication as chairman of the Select Senate Committee to Study Censure Charges was his undoing. No sooner had laurels and praise been showered on him, than dissident right-wing elements in his own state began to plan for his defeat in his bid for re-election in 1958. Former Utah Governor J. Bracken Lee, running as an Independent and supported by outside wealthy sources amenable to ultra-conservatism, headed the opposition. He drew enough votes away from Watkins to ensure his defeat in his campaign against Democrat Frank Moss, who, in turn, was being helped by the then Senate Majority Leader Lyndon B. Johnson (who had praised Watkins for a magnificent job as chairman of the committee to censure McCarthy) . Watkins's loss in his bid for reelection brought down the final curtain on an interesting phase of American history. Watkins has written an important book, detailing his role in the dramatic events of the McCarthy era. He has written it with humility and simplicity, painstakingly documenting the reasons for every move he made. This book has

289 been long in coming, but once here it is a significant contribution. RODOLFO MARTINEZ

Professor of Political Science Eastern Kentucky University Richmond, Kentucky N E W BOOKS AND PUBLICATIONS Capitol Reef Historical Survey and Base Map.

By LENARD E. BROWN.

(Wash-

ington, D . C : Division of History, Office of Archeology and Historic Preservation, U. S. Department of Interior, National Park Service, 1969) Everyday Life in the United States before the Civil War, 1830-1860. By ROBERT LACOUR-GAYET. Translated by MARY ILFORD. (New York: Frederick Ungar Publishing Company, 1969) Faith To Move Mountains: A History of the Colorado District of the Lutheran Church-Missouri Synod from the earliest mission work, 1872-1968. By LYLE L. SCHAEFER. (Denver: The Colorado District, Lutheran ChurchMissouri Synod, 1969) The First and Second United States Empires: Governors and Territorial Government, 1784-1912. By JACK ERICKSON EBLEN. (Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania: University of Pittsburgh Press, 1968) Flathead and Kootenay: The Rivers, the Tribes and the Region's Traders. By OLGA WEYDEMEYERJOHNSON. (Glen-

dale, California: The Arthur H. Clark Company, 1969) Historic

Western Churches. By LAM(Seattle, Washington: Superior Publishing Company, 1969) BERT FLORIN.

Indian Depredations in Utah. Compiled and edited by PETER GOTTFREDSON. Revised by MERLIN G. C H R I S -

(Salt Lake City: Merlin G. Christensen, 1969)

TENSEN.


Utah Historical Quarterly

290 Jim Whitewolf: The Life of a Kiowa Apache Indian. Edited with a n introduction a n d epilogue by C H A R L E S S. BRANT. ( N e w Y o r k : Dover Publications, Inc., 1969) Salt Desert Trails: A History of the Hastings Cutoff and Other Early Trails Which Crossed the Great Salt Desert.

By C H A R L E S K E L L Y . R e p r i n t .

(Salt Lake 1969)

City:

Western

Epics,

Silver and the First New Deal. By J O H N A. B R E N N A N . ( R e n o : University of N e v a d a Press, 1969) The Six Turnings: Major Changes in the American West, 1806-1834. By JOHN

UPTON

TERRELL.

California: T h e A r t h u r C o m p a n y , 1968).

Wilderness Defender: Horace M. Albright and Conservation. By DONALD C. S W A I N . (Chicago, Illinois: U n i versity of Chicago Press, 1970) ARTICLES OF INTEREST American Heritage, The Magazine of History — X X I , April 1970: " T h e Hudson's Bay C o m p a n y , " by DAVID LAVENDER,

The American West —• V I , November 1969: " T h e H u n t e r a n d t h e Artist: A U n i q u e Partnership in t h e Documentation of t h e M o u n t a i n M a n ' s West [William D r u m m o n d Stewart and Alfred J a c o b Miller]," by J A Y

(Glendale,

MONAGHAN,

H . Clark

Choice: O l d Gabe of H e r Majesty's English Life G u a r d s [Jim Bridger]," by

The Territories and the United States, 1861-1890, Studies in Colonial Administration.

"Collector's

GOOSMAN,

14-15;

"Sculptor Cyrus E. Dallin, who knew the horse a n d knew t h e I n d i a n , " by

POMEROY.

J O H N C. E W E R S , 2 2 - 2 3 ; " F r e e M a n

in a Free C o u n t r y : T h e West of Mayn a r d Dixon, with a selection of his paintings a n d poems, a n d a n essay

James

tor-Bishop.

Conaty,

S.

MILDRED

4-13;

W i t h a n e w introduction by t h e author. Reprint. (Seattle: University of Washington Press, 1969) Thomas

By E A R L

5ff.

Pastor-Educa-

By R E V E R E N D F R A N C I S J.

WEBER. ( L O S Angeles, California: Westernlore Press, 1969) The Track Going Back: A Century of Transcontinental Railroading, 18691969. T e x t by E V E R E T T L. D E G O L Y E R ,

J R . (Fort W o r t h , T e x a s : Anion Carter M u s e u m , 1969) Travelers' Official Railway Guide. ( A n n Arbor, M i c h i g a n : University Microfilms, A X e r o x C o m p a n y , 1969) [Golden Spike Centennial issue a facsimile of t h e J u n e 1869 Guide, p u b lished by National Railway Publication Company] A Vestige of Medievalism in ern United States: Los Penitentes.

SouthwestHermanos

By L O R A Y N E A N N H O R K A -

F O L L I C K . ( L O S Angeles, California: Westernlore Press. 1969)

o n u n d e r s t a n d i n g , " by A N S E L A D A M S ,

4 0 - 4 5 — V I I , M a r c h 1970: " T h e Case of the Very American Militants, Notes o n t h e I W W as a Product a n d a Reflection of Mainstream Americ a , " by J O S E P H R. C O N L I N , 4ff.;

"A

Dig on the Comstock, Recollections of a Virginia City Boyhood," by J O H N TAYLOR

WALDORF,

11-17;

"Pug-

Nosed Lil a n d T h e Girl With t h e Blue Velvet Band, A Brief Medley of W o m e n in Western Songs," by A U S TIN and ALTA F I F E , 32-37

Audubon, The Magazine of the National Audubon Society—-71, September 1969: " A Wilderness of Slickrock [Little C a t h e d r a l Canyon in the Escalante wilderness]," story a n d photogr a p h y by P H I L I P H Y D E , 4 4 - 4 9 — N o -

vember

1 9 6 9 : "Powell's

River, A

Colorado Portfolio," by E L I O T P O R T -

ER; 64-76; " T h e Colorado's Canyons T o d a y , " by E L I O T PORTER, 77-79


Reviews and Publications Brigham Young University Studies: A Voice for the Community of LDS Scholars — X, Winter 1970: "Federal Government Efforts To 'Americanize' Utah Before Admission To Statehood," by GUSTIVE O. LARSON, 218-32 The Bulletin: National Railway Historical Society — 35, Number 1, 1970: "'Done!' A Continent is United!" by J O H N M. HOLST, 18ff.

The Colorado Magazine—XLVI, Summer 1969: "My First Months as Colorado's State Historian," by LEROY R. HAFEN, 209-19 —Fall 1969: "For Water-Level Rails Along the Colorado River," by O. DOCK MARSTON, 287-303 The Denver Westerners Monthly Roundup — XXVI, March 1970: "The Colorado Fuel and Iron Steel Corporation [operated in Utah]," by R. A. RONZIO, 3-16

The Improvement Era — 73, February 1970: "President Joseph Fielding Smith Becomes Tenth President of the [Mormon] Church, Elders Harold B. Lee and N. Eldon Tanner Called to First Presidency," 2 - 5 ; "David O. McKay, 1873-1970," by JAY M. TODD and

ALBERT L. ZOBELL, J R . ,

8-19 — April 1970: "Achievements of Latter-day Saint Women," by DR. LEONARD J. ARRINGTON, 61-62

Intermountain Industry — April 1970: "What is Terracor? A comprehensive in-depth report on one of the fastest-growing, most-amazing enterprises in Utah business history," by ROBERT J. COLES, 6ff.; "Obscure 40

Acres — Then Bloomington!" 13; "Terracor Organization: Influence, Skill, Talent in Key Places," 14 The Living Wilderness — 33, Autumn 1969: "Primitive Areas — A New Designation Under BLM [Vermillion Cliffs]," by BOB WHITAKER, 12-14

The Masterkey For Indian Lore and History — 44, January-March 1970:

291 "The Disappearing Havasupai CornPlanting Ceremony," by P. T. REILLY, 30-34 Montana, the Magazine of Western History—XX, Spring 1970: "The Firewagon Road [railroads]," by ROBERT G. ATHEARN, 2-19; "The Gold Dust Trail: Jack Langrishe's Mining Town Theaters [includes Salt Lake Theatre]," by ALICE COCHRAN, 58-69 National Geographic — 137, March 1970: "Indian Shangri-La of the Grand Canyon [Havasupai Indians]," by JAY J O H N S T O N , 355-73 National Parks Magazine — 44, February 1970: "The Rise of American Esthetic Conservation: [John] Muir, [Stephen T.] Mather, & [Stewart L.] Udall,"

by

DOUGLAS

HILLMAN

STRONG, 4—9

New Mexico Magazine — 48, March/ April 1970: "Trip of the Month, Luna [Mormon town in New Mexico]," by BETTY WOODS, 46-47 The Pacific Historian -—'14, Winter 1970: "The Golden Spike is Missing," by ROBIN LAMPSON, 9-24

Pacific Historical Review — X X X V I I I August 1969: "The New Deal in Wyoming," by T. A. LARSON, 249-73; "The New Deal in Colorado," by JAMES F. W I C K E N S , 275-91; "The New Deal in Idaho," by MICHAEL P. MALONE, 293-310; "The New Deal in the West: A Preliminary Statistical Inquiry," by LEONARD ARRINGTON,

311-16; "The New Deal in the West," by JAMES T. PATTERSON, 317-28 —

November 1969: "Crisis on the Home Front: The Federal Government and Utah's Defense Housing in World War I I , " by JAMES B. ALLEN, 407-28

The Pioneer— 17, March-April 1970: "Tiny Echo Chapel, Now Abandoned, To Be Preserved," by JAN PADFIELD, 9; "The Overland Mail, Era of the Stage Coach: Heroic . . . Exciting . . . Dangerous," by HOWARD


Utah Historical

292 13-14; " T h e Logan Temple Saw Mill, Little C a n y o n C a m p Turned O u t 4 Million Board Feet,"

DRIGGS,

by ALFRED E. CROOKSTON, 15-16 —

May-June 1970: "Fabulous Story of Utah's Pioneer Village: Stable and Show Ring Made Into Far-Famed Museum," by HORACE A. SORENSON, 5-7; " T h e Rocky Mountain Country's Top Historian: Charley Kelly Penned Many Tales of Pioneer Life Out West," by H E R B S. HAMBLIN, 14 The Pony Express — X X X V I , February 1970: "Rocky Mountain's Top Historian [Charles Kelly]," 1; "He Won His Wife In a Pocker Game," by CHARLES KELLY, 3 - 5 ; "Sketch on Charles K E L L Y , " 5-6

Research Review —• January 1970: "The 1968 Election in Utah [four pages, entire issue]" Sierra Club Bulletin — 54, December 1969: "Death of the Escalante [Canyon country]," by JACK E. M C L E L LAN, 4-9 Sunset, The Magazine of Western Living— 144, May 1970: "Topaz seekers are invited," 38ff.; "Old opera house reborn . . . in Utah," 52; "The birds have two great stopover places around Great Salt Lake [Bear River Refuge and Antelope Island]," 6 4 65; "Havasupai baskets . . . coming back," 66; "Newspaper Rock . . . near Canyonlands," 78; "Down, down to Havasu, The only way to get there is afoot or on horseback. And May is the glorious month to go," 80-83 The Trail Guide — X I V , December 1969: " T h e Rhetoric of Alexander

Quarterly

W. Doniphan," by R. Kenneth Elliott, 3-14 Utah Architect — 50, F a l l / W i n t e r 1969-70: "When Process and Function Create A r c h i t e c t u r e [LDS C h u r c h Records V a u l t ] , " 9-10; "Open Pit Mining Process Creates Giant Amphitheatre [Kennecott Copper Corporation]," 11 Utah Farmer — 90, March 19, 1970: "The Tabernacle Choir . . . the Utah Symphony . . . U t a h ' s Musical 'Greats,'" 29 Utah Libraries — 13, Spring 1970: " 'Divinely Tall and Most Divinely Fair': Josephine Donna Smith — 'Ina Coolbrith,' " by LEONARD J. ARRINGTON, 8ff. Western Gateways, Magazine of the Four Corner States—Ten, Number O n e : "Into this land —• long on beauty and short on resources — A Little Piece of Heaven Fell [Seventh Day Adventist Hospital in Monument Valley]," by JACK R O O F , 54ff.

The Western Historical Quarterly — I, January 1970: "The Frontier and I," by

R A Y ALLEN

BILLINGTON,

4-20;

"A Brahmin in Buffaloland [Union Pacific Railroad]," by ROBERT G. ATHEARN, 21-34; " T h e Westerners: Twenty-five Years of Riding the Range," by LELAND D. CASE, 63-76 The Westerners New York Posse Brand Book—16, Number 4, 1969: "Charles Schreyvogel, Painter, Historian of The Indian Fighting Army of the West," by JAMES D. HORAN, 73-78


U T A H STATE H I S T O R I C A L SOCIETY Membership in the Utah State Historical Society is open to all individuals and institutions who are interested in Utah history. We invite everyone to join this one official agency of state government charged by law with the collection, preservation, and publication of materials on Utah and related history. Through the pages of the Utah Historical Quarterly, the Society is able to fulfill part of its legal responsibility. Your membership dues provide the means for publication of the Quarterly. So, we earnestly encourage present members to interest their friends in joining them in furthering the cause of Utah history. Membership brings with it the Utah Historical Quarterly, the bimonthly Newsletter, and special prices on publications of the Society. The different classes of membership are: Student Annual Life

$ 3.00 $ 5.00 $100.00

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$ 250.00 $ 500.00 $1,000.00

Your interest and support are most welcome.


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UTAH STATE HISTORICAL SOCIETY

BOARD O F STATE H I S T O R Y Division of Department of Development Services MILTON c. ABRAMS, Smithfield, 1973

President DELLO G. DAYTON, Ogden, 1971

Vice President CHARLES s. PETERSON, Salt Lake City Secretary DEAN R. BRIM HALL, F r u i t a , 1 9 7 3 MRS. JUANITA BROOKS, St. George, 1973

JACK GOODMAN, Salt Lake City, 1973 MRS. A. c. JENSEN, Sandy, 1971 THERON L U K E , PrOVO, 1 9 7 1

CLYDE L. MILLER, Secretary of State

Ex officio HOWARD c. PRICE, J R . , Price, 1971 MRS. ELIZABETH SKANGHY, M i d v a l e , 1 9 7 3

MRS. NAOMI WOOLLEY, Salt Lake City, 1971

ADVISORY BOARD O F E D I T O R S THOMAS G. ALEXANDER, PrOVO S. GEORGE ELLSWORTH, L o g a n

MRS. HELEN z. PAPANIKOLAS, Salt Lake City LAMAR PETERSEN, Salt Lake City

MRS. PEARL JACOBSON, Richfield

HAROLD SCHINDLER, Salt Lake City

DAVID E. MILLER, Salt Lake City

JEROME STOFFEL, Logan

ADMINISTRATION CHARLES s. PETERSON, Director J O H N JAMES, J R . , Librarian

The Utah State Historical Society is an organization devoted to the collection, preservation, and publication of Utah and related history. It was organized by publicspirited Utahns in 1897 for this purpose. In fulfillment of its objectives, the Society publishes the Utah Historical Quarterly, which is distributed to its members with payment of a $5.00 annual membership fee. The Society also maintains a specialized research library of books, pamphlets, photographs, periodicals, microfilms, newspapers, maps, and manuscripts. Many of these items have come to the library as gifts. Donations are encouraged, for only through such means can the Utah State Historical Society live up to its responsibility of preserving the record of Utah's past.

MARGERY w. WARD, Associate Editor IRIS SCOTT, Business Manager

The primary purpose of the Quarterly is the publication of manuscripts, photographs, and documents which relate or give a new interpretation to Utah's unique story. Contributions of writers are solicited for the consideration of the editor. However, the editor assumes no responsibility for the return of manscripts unaccompanied by return postage. Manuscripts and material for publications should be sent to the editor. The Utah State Historical Society does not assume responsibility for statements of fact or opinions expressed by contributors. The Utah Historical Quarterly is entered as second-class postage, paid at Salt Lake City, Utah. Copyright 1970, Utah State Historical Society, 603 East South Temple Street, Salt Lake City, Utah 84102.


UIITAML HISTORICAL QUARTERLY

FALL 1970 / VOLUME 38 / NUMBER 4

Contents SIR RICHARD F. BURTON: EXCEPTIONAL OBSERVER OF THE MORMON SCENE BY FAWN M. BRODIE

295

OVERLAND TO CALIFORNIA IN 1850: THE JOURNAL OF CALVIN TAYLOR EDITED BY BURTON J . WILLIAMS

312

THE PRESIDENT'S REPORT FOR THE FISCAL YEAR 1969-1970 BY MILTON c . A B R A M S

-

REVIEWS AND PUBLICATIONS

INDEX

361

-—

EDITOR ASSOCIATE EDITOR

350

372

CHARLES S. PETERSON Margery W. W a r d

THE COVER An artist's concept of a wagon train fording a river along the Mormon Trail.


Books Reviewed

H I R S H S O N , S T A N L E Y P., The Lord: A Biography of Brigham

Lion of Young,

the

BY DALE L. MORGAN

361

T A G G A R T , S T E P H E N G., Mormonism's Policy: Social and Historical Origins,

Negro

362

BY DENNIS L. LYTHGOE

J A C O B S , W I L B U R R., The Historical Frederick Jackson Turner, With From His Correspondence,

World of Selections

363

BY PAUL W. GATES

P O R T E R , E L I O T , and D O N D. F O W L E R , Down The Colorado: John Wesley Powell Diary of the First Trip Through The Grand Canyon, 1869,

364

BY W. L. RUSHO

E M E N H I S E R , J E D O N , ed., The Dragon on the Hill: Utah's 38th Legislature: Analysis and Comment, BY O. N. M A L M Q U I S T

365

W A T E R S , F R A N K , Pumpkin BY LOUISE L. U D A L L

S M I T H , GIBBS M., Joe BY JEROME BERNSTEIN

Seed

Point, 366

Hill, 367


Sir Richard F. Burton: Exceptional Observer

Of The Mormon Scene

BY F A W N M . BRODIE

A

FTER ACCEPTING an invitation from the Provo branch of the U t a h State Historical Society to speak on Sir Richard F. Burton's City of the Saints, I realized belatedly t h a t this subject presented some difficulty. It would be an affront to an audience simply to repeat what I had already put into print, even if many in that audience had read neither my IntroMrs. Brodie, noted author, lecturer, and historian, is senior lecturer in history at the University of California, Los Angeles. This speech was presented to the U t a h Valley Chapter of the U t a h State Historical Society on January 19, 1970, and to the U t a h Westerners the following evening. T h e portrait of Sir Richard Burton is the work of Louis Desanges in 1861.


296

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duction to a new edition of The City of the Saints nor my biography of Burton, The Devil Drives. It would be an affront even if many in the audience had read both books and largely forgotten them, which is something that happens frequently, as authors learn to their sorrow. It is a humbling thing, too, for writers to take stock of how little they themselves retain of what others have written, even if the authors have spent years on excited research and more years in the painful anguish of writing. It is also very humbling to me as a teacher to try to reconstruct exactly what I remember of my own college classes or lectures. Of a sociology class at the University of Utah, for example, I remember nothing whatever, and of a class in statistics only my own frightened sense of incapacity. Of Professor E. E. Erickson's class in ethics, however, I do remember one thing; it is the only thing I remember, but it made an impact. Professor Erickson set before the class this problem: What would happen in our society if everyone suddenly began obeying all of the Ten Commandments? It may be that this is now a trite, old-fashioned game everyone in U t a h plays sooner or later, but most of us in my class were fresh off the farm with the smell of hayseed still clinging to us, and the question seemed supremely subversive. We went down the list of commandments; I remember that the fifth — "Honor Thy Father and Thy Mother" — was especially worrisome, even though this was long before the days of chatter about the generation gap, long before the appearance of routine articles in the Ladies Home Journal and Readers Digest written by social psychologists who insist that rebellion against one's parents is a normal and essential step in gaining emotional maturity. Professor Erickson, in talking about abandoning the honoring of one's father and mother, put several blunt questions to us. " H a d this commandment been strictly obeyed in America in the past," he asked, "Would there have been an American Revolution? Would there have been a Mormon church?" But it was his discussion of the last commandment, "Thou shalt not covet . . . anything that is thy neighbor's," that proved to be the most Mephistophelian. Dr. Erickson described in ominous detail what would happen if everyone ceased sinning in this respect — the end of advertising, the decay of competitive society, the breakdown of our economy, panic, famine — all this to students already suffering the depths of the Depression. T h e game was exciting for innocents such as we were; I cannot believe anyone comes to college with that kind of innocence today.


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I was reminded of Dr. Erickson when preparing to write again about Burton, for both men delighted in throwing out disturbing questions before very innocent Victorian people, especially wide-eyed young girls. Nothing was sacred to Burton. In his wanderings on every continent he was driven by a voracious and most un-Victorian curiosity. He had an eye and an ear that were detached from any kind of moral judgment. As I wrote in The Devil Drives, Burton "dwelt fascinated upon all things accounted devilish in his own time." "Good men," he wrote, "are mostly colorless and unpicturesque. So Satan is the true hero of Paradise Lost and by his side God and man are very ordinary; and Mephistopheles is much better society than Faust and Fawn M. Brodie in her home Margaret." 1 As Burton approached in Palisades, California, in 1966. Great Salt Lake Valley in the lumbering stagecoach in 1859, he was delighted to pass successively "the Devil's Backbone," "The Devil's Gate," "the Devil's Postoffice," and "the Devil's Hole." The devil, he concluded, was architect of some of the finest scenery in the West.2 And of course Burton was on his way to visit Brigham Young, accounted by many indignant Puritan Americans to be, if not the anti-Christ, at least the arch-seducer of the century. Many Victorians in England denounced Burton's own life as immoral, as well as his writings. But he was not so much immoral as amoral. This is not to say that he looked at everything without moral judgment, or that he was incapable of indignation. Burton could be ferociously indignant, especially at practices which denied the life force. He wrote eloquently against the slave trade, and looked with particular horror at the practice of castrating young blacks to fill the demands for 1 A Plain and Literal Translation of the Arabian Nights' Entertainment, 1885, I X , 135n, cited in Fawn M. Brodie, The Devil Drives (New York, 1967), 15. " R i c h a r d F. Burton, The City of the Saints . . . (New York, 1862), 147.


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eunuchs in the harems of the Middle East, a practice which was still commonplace in the Sudan as late as the 1870's. T h e annual New Year's ritual murders in Dahomey, where over a hundred captives from neighboring tribes were slaughtered as messengers to take private communications to the dead king's ancestors, also filled him with horror, but so did the public hanging in London of children and young mothers convicted of theft. Cannibalism among the F a n tribe in Africa he discovered was not casual animal savagery, as many thought, but a religious ceremony carried out only by men of the tribe, a ritual as carefully ordered as some of the ceremonies of the C h u r c h of England. And he pointed out that ritual murder and the eating of a portion of the body of the victim — or sacred youth, or young god — in order to obtain the magic powers of the god, was common in the origins of many religions. W h a t is now considered a commonplace idea among anthropologists, social historians, and students of comparative religion, was in Burton's day considered almost too shocking for publication. M u c h of this kind of speculation was edited out of his manuscripts by indignant editors as "garbage." Burton was a true m a n of the Renaissance. H e took all knowledge to be his province. H e was soldier, explorer, ethnologist, archaeologist, poet, translator, one of the two or three great linguists of his time, also an amateur physician, botanist, zoologist, and geologist. "Discovery is mostly my mania," he wrote. 3 And though he risked death to explore the forbidden city of Mecca and to find Lake Tanganyika in his search for the sources of the great Nile, his real passion was not for geographical discovery but for the hidden in man, for the unknowable, and inevitably the unthinkable. I n his last years he took it upon himself to bring to the West the sexual wisdom of the East, where acceptance of the naturalness of the art of love came close to religious exaltation; here he anticipated many of the insights of Havelock Ellis and Sigmund Freud. I n these respects he was eminently a m a n not of the Renaissance but of our own century. H e was above all interested in sexual customs and in the rituals of childbirth, puberty, courtship, marriage, and finally death itself. T h e intimate relationship of all these to religion fascinated him. H e was not interested in the study of sexual aberration as such, but he noted it and described it where he found it, without labeling it immodest, prurient, or unclean. Instead he asked of himself: did it or did it not cons Foreword to Burton's translation of the Carmina of Gaius Valerius in Brodie, The Devil Drives, 16.

Catullus,

1894, cited


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tribute to a m a n or woman's capacity for love. Insofar as he judged at all — and he judged seldom — this was his test. Burton was a collector of Holy Cities. H e had been to Mecca and H a r a r ; Salt Lake City was third upon his list. But it was chiefly Mormon polygamy that attracted him, not the new religion, nor the great colonizing experiment, nor the theocracy within a democracy. Burton arrived in the United States on the threshold of the Civil War, and he spent three months touring the East and South before coming to M o r m o n territory. H e remained in Salt Lake City only three weeks, and then went on to the brash and burgeoning cities of the Pacific area, Carson City and San Francisco. Still his six hundred-page book concerned only the Indians and the Mormons. I t was clearly the primitivism of the Indians and the sexual eccentricity of the Mormons that excited him above everything else on the American continent. There are reasons for this special preoccupation of Burton's, but I have already written and published them. Here I should prefer to discuss why Burton was the best of all the nineteenth-century observers of the Mormon scene, and also to examine in a general way the difficulties facing anyone — historian, journalist, or biographer — writing about the Mormons, whether writing in Burton's time or today. I do think this society presents special complications. Were Burton writing The City of the Saints today he would find the assignment even tougher, and it goes without saying that he would very quickly abandon Salt Lake City for Short Creek, Arizona. 4 Burton was first of all a truly great scholar. Going to Mecca in disguise, as he did, meant accepting the risk of being killed or castrated, for the city was then, and still is, forbidden to all non-Moslems. But when he went he was already an Arab scholar of some distinction, and his descriptions of Mecca and Medina remain today unsurpassed for the exactness of their detail. Burton loved books; he read them voraciously, compiled bibliographies as other men compile business accounts, and became one of the most celebrated writers of footnotes in the history of British scholarship. So he brought to the M o r m o n scene a capacity to sink into a veritable morass of controversial literature and emerge from it with a clear understanding of what one might call M o r m o n ecology. Wallace Stegner has written that the literature on the Mormons is "enormous, repetitious, con4

Now Colorado City.


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tradictory, and embattled." 5 Burton would have rejoiced in the word "embattled." As a good journalist he naturally arranged an interview with Brigham Young; this was not difficult, for Burton was already so famous an explorer that the Deseret News gave him an official welcome, and Alfred Cumming, governor of the territory, gave him a letter of introduction. But also, like every historian worth his salt, Burton went to the Church Historian's office and read. No doubt he read only that which was considered appropriate to give him; but one must say in all fairness that if he was denied anything he wanted to see, he does not say so. Moreover, when Burton returned to London he went to the Mormon headquarters there and added to his already impressive accumulation of information. In The City of the Saints, he gives us a comprehensive annotated bibliography, even telling us the books he has not read. The latter were very few. Burton in Salt Lake City learned almost at once that "there are three distinct opinions concerning, three separate reasons for, and three diametrically different accounts of, everything that happens; viz., that of the Mormons, which is invariably one-sided; that of the Gentiles, which is sometimes fair and just; and that of the anti-Mormons, wrhich is always prejudiced and violent." 6 Since Burton was not a historian, he was not faced with the almost insuperable task of reconciling or choosing among the three versions on almost every detail of Mormon history. For the "three versions phenomenon" has continued down through the years. One sees it in Kimball Young's sociological analysis of polygamy: he begins with the anti-Mormon version, goes on to the orthodox Mormon version, and finishes with the Gentile version. Every historian today who chooses to write about Mormons of the past may well get the feeling that he is entering a labyrinth in which the ultimate exit is truth, but every time he rounds a corner there are arrows pointing in three different directions. Actually this is an exaggeration of the problem; there is a more exact metaphor. What the historian of Mormonism faces is not a labyrinth but several thousand or several hundred thousand small pieces of history — pieces of mosaic he has himself selected out of the documents. None of these pieces is his own creation, for the historian and biographer do not 5 Wallace Stegner, The Gathering 1964), 313. n Burton, City of the Saints, 197.

of Zion:

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invent history. "The biographer," as Desmond MacCarthy has written, "is an artist who is on oath." 7 And the oath is important. But the biographer and historian soon learn that many of their mosaic fragments are inherently contradictory, so that if they put one group together a certain picture emerges, and if they put another group together a quite different picture is created. Yet it is important to remember that in Mormon history, if one assembles everything known about a single episode, a picture can emerge which one can be reasonably certain approaches the truth. The fragments may well fit together neatly, jigsaw fashion, so that no other picture is possible. If that happens, one can be fairly certain that the ultimate design of the mosaic — the final portrait, if one is describing a person — is not mostly one's own creation but truly an approximation of the real past. Of course, even at best there are pieces left over that don't fit anywhere, and sometimes one inadvertently mislabels a fragment. Burton didn't have this problem. He was not creating a historical mosaic, a piece of history, or a biography; he simply accumulated a marvelous collection of fragments and put them into his book in a more or less coherent fashion, to the delight of future historians. Moreover, Burton was not subject, as everyone is today who writes about Mormon history, or for that matter sectarian history of any kind, to the criticism of those who condemn the mosaic not only because they don't like the portrait but also because they discover that a few of the fragments are mislabeled or out of place. This kind of criticism is what Dale Morgan calls "the copyreader's approach to history." It is the approach generally of people who have never written history and who do not know the multitudinous difficulties of selection, and the multitudinous opportunities for small errors. The copyreader in a publishing house does not evaluate a book on its general merits or demerits, like the editors; his job is to scrutinize the manuscript with meticulous care for small errors. A good copyreader is invaluable; he saves both author and publisher a great deal of money, catching mistakes which would otherwise have to be corrected in proof or in subsequent printings. He never gets them all. But the reader with the copyreader's approach to history goes one step further; he collects the small errors and uses the collection to condemn the whole. Instead of evaluating the historical mosaic in general terms, whether clinically or 7

England

As quoted in Richard D. Altick, Lives and Letters, and America (New York, 1965), 301.

a History

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philosophically, emotionally or unemotionally, rationally or irrationally, he concentrates on the picayune, and forges it into a weapon of attack. Burton was spared this kind of attack, despite the fact that his book contained many small errors, because he was a celebrated foreigner, and because he wrote about the Saints with more compassion and understanding than any other celebrated visitor of his time. His book was greeted with relief and pleasure by most of his Mormon audience, whether in his own time or in recent times. This brings me to a second useful requirement for a writer on Mormon history, that he be a foreigner. There are, of course, obvious disadvantages: the foreigner may miss important nuances, or simply not have the enthusiasm for detail that someone has who grows up on the scene. He may never properly understand the emotional satisfactions of being "in the brotherhood," which explain so much of the success of the Mormon movement. But the foreigner has one great advantage over what one might call the dissenting Mormon historian, whether JackMormon, or, to use the old-fashioned and cruder word, "apostate." The foreigner does not have problems of anxiety, guilt, and fear. I would suspect that good historians like Dale Morgan, Juanita Brooks, Ray West, Harold Schindler and Klaus Hansen have all suffered in varying degrees from these problems while they were writing Mormon history, as I am frank to admit I have myself. Kimball Young, himself a notable dissenter, is of the opinion that these anxieties often make the apostate distort Mormon history by making it out to be worse than it was.8 I think it is also true that such anxieties also tend in the other direction, to make the dissenting historian protective. This is true of many southern-white historians who write about slavery. They write with the knowledge that the home town folks, or the home town faculty, are looking over their shoulder. Some of the resulting distortion, protection, and omission is unconscious; some is deliberate. But the distortion and omission are there, as anyone can see who reads what the northern-born historian or the black historian has written about the same period or the same problem. Wallace Stegner and Bernard DeVoto are examples of historians of Mormonism who grew up in the scene but were not of it. This, I would imagine, is the perfect background; they did not have problems of anxiety and guilt. But they did have the problem, which Burton did not, of perspective. It is not easy for anyone who grows up in the heart 8

Kimball Young, Isn't One Wife Enough?

(New York, 1954), 303.


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of Mormonism to fit the society properly into the world scene. This takes a detachment of which very few are capable. Burton in many respects was the ideal foreigner. Since he was a great scholar, he was not repelled by a mass of contradictory literature but waded into it joyously, emerging with an organized as well as philosophical understanding of its nature and historical worth. Secondly, as a foreigner he brought to the scene an extraordinary knowledge of comparative culture. H e was unshockable; he had a supremely unembarrassed mind. Mormon polygamy never dismayed Burton, as it did practically all Americans of the time. H e ÂŤ^MHH^flHg: had lived among Moslem polygamists in India, and as an intelligence officer in the East Indian army had often gone in disguise as an A r a b merchant into the harems of K a r a chi. H e had also written of polygamous practices in East Africa, though when he came to Mormon territory he had not yet visited the Kingdom of Dahomey in West Africa, where the king, with his army of 2,500 Amazons, all technically wives, made Brigham Young look very respectable. Burton did not know how many wives Brigham Young then had, and he could not know that the Mormon prophet would eventually accumulate at least seventy. Seventy, at any rate, is the figure in the latest biography of Brigham Young, The Lion of the Lord, by Professor Stanley Hirshson. 9 If Burton had had access to the late Stanley S. Ivins's remarkable files now in the U t a h State Historical Society, as Hirshson did, I have no doubt he would have been even more Daguerrotype of Brigham Young in 1855.

9 Stanley P. Hirshson, The Lion of the Lord, A Biography of Brigham Young (New York, 1969), 190.


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impressed with Brigham Young than he was. In any case Burton looked at the American version of polygamy clinically, almost like a doctor who has seen an unusual symptom before, only somewhat different, and who examines the difference with scientific fascination and clinical understanding. Burton looked at polygamy with the detachment of a modern anthropologist. In his day the science of anthropology was in its infancy, and he contributed much to its early development in England. If one reads Kimball Young on Mormon polygamy after reading Burton, one cannot fail to be impressed with the degree to which Young's case histories and statistics bear out the truth of Burton's larger generalizations. Over and again the sociologist proves Burton to have been right. Burton himself was modest about his generalizations; he admitted candidly that any woman could learn in one hour more about polygamy in either Salt Lake City or in Islam than a man could learn in a year. Certainly Burton's knowledge of other exotic cultures greatly enriched his book, The City of the Saints, which is peppered with crosscultural allusions. In Utah Valley he looked with special admiration at Mount Nebo, which reminded him, he wrote, of a line in the Koran: it was like "one of the pins which fastened down the plains of earth." When going through Sioux Indian territory he learned that the Sioux warrior would sometimes cut off the nose of his wife to punish her for adultery. This he noted in his journal, adding that he had seen the same practice also among the Hindus. In describing polygamy among the American Indians, he observed that some preferred to marry sisters, saying that "the tent is more quiet." 10 Later he discovered that marrying sisters was commonplace, too, in Salt Lake City. Kimball Young found that among the polygamists he studied those who married sisters numbered nineteen per cent.11 Burton described Mormon polygamy as essentially Puritanical compared with that in the Near East, where there was a totally different attitude toward the body as an object of pleasure. Nevertheless he felt that polygamy softened and feminized the American female — that it turned the stiff New England spinster like Sarah Pratt into, if not a warm and loving wife, at least a tender mother and helpful companion to four other wives and twenty-five children. Wallace Stegner, many years later, in writing his The Gathering of Zion, would describe this phenomenon somewhat differently, but would still make the point that so impressed 10 11

Burton, City of the Saints, 116, 333. Young, Isn't One Wife Enough? 111.


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Burton. "A man's duty in Salt Lake City," Stegner would write, "every day, was to ask, 'Lord, what is Thy will?' A woman's was to ask, 'Husband, what is thy will?' " 12 Like many men, yesterday and today, Burton believed that man is by nature polygamous. Kimball Young describes the modern marriage system with its inordinately high divorce rate as "tandem polygamy." 13 Neither Burton nor Kimball Young felt any necessity for explaining its popularity among Mormon men. Burton was fascinated, however, to discover that there were women in Deseret who stoutly defended polygamy, and after pursuing the matter with some care, he decided to reproduce in his volume the strong defense of polygamy written by Mrs. Sarah Pratt. He went on to suggest delicately that polygamy attracted some women who wanted security and motherhood but who were happy to share their husband because they found the connubial duties of the marriage bed distasteful. Kimball Young describes several such women in detail. For all his detachment about the polygamous system, Burton did make clear that he believed love between a man and one wife was best. "The tender tie," he wrote, "must be confined to two." Once a third person is introduced, the concentration is shifted away from love to "household comfort, affection, circumspect friendship, and domestic discipline." The result of this shift, he said, was an atmosphere in Salt Lake City which he described as "Moslem gloom." 14 Burton missed one explanation for the success of Mormon polygamy because he was essentially non-political. He had no interest in politics or political systems, and was uninterested in the phenomenon of Mormonism as a theocracy. The authoritarian structure of the church has fascinated many observers since Burton. Wallace Stegner points out that the Pioneer Day celebrations in Utah celebrate not the free individual but "the obedient group." 15 In Burton's day many non-Mormon observers were appalled at the total fusion of church and state in Deseret, which was so alien to the traditions of the republic, and they could not understand why ostensibly free men permitted Brigham Young to dictate where they should settle, how they should vote, and often even whom they should marry, without violent protest. 12

Stegner, Gathering of Zion, 170. " Y o u n g , Isn't One Wife Enough? 445. " B u r t o n , City of the Saints, 418, 431. 15 Stegner, Gathering of Zion, 4.


Brigham Young surrounded by some of his wives. From left to right, top to bottom: Emmeline Free, Mary Ann Angell, Mary Van Cott, Augusta Adams, Martha Bowker, Miriam Works, Eliza Burgess, Naamah Kendall Jenkins Carter, Clara Chase Ross, Lucy Decker, Zina Diantha Huntington, Margaret Pierce, Clara Decker, Harriet Cook Campbell, Lucy Bigelow, Harriet Barney, Emily Dow Partridge, Susan Snively, Ann Eliza Webb, Harriet Amelia Folsom, and Eliza Roxey Snow.


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Burton was not in any sense an ardent believer in democracy, and he did not share the feeling of many Americans that the Mormons were really enslaved by their theocracy. H e might otherwise have pointed out (as Kimball Young has hinted) that one of the reasons the Mormon male was so obedient to the church hierarchy was the fact that he was permitted quite remarkable sexual freedom. No Mormon man needed to remain tyrannized by a single wife; he could, and in fact did, exercise extraordinary power over his several wives and children. Such freedom and such power doubtless made denial of other basic freedoms bearable. T h e same circumstance was true also in some degree with American Negro slavery. Here complete sexual license was an important factor in making slavery tolerable. Sociologists have long recognized that without it there would have been far more slave insurrections than did in fact occur. Burton brought to the Great Basin phenomenon not only a knowledge of comparative cultures, intellectual sophistication and detachment, but also a marvelously ironic sense of humor. This is not an absolute essential for a good writer on Mormon history, but it is an asset in which we should all rejoice. It serves to temper what might otherwise surface as indignation, and to mellow what might otherwise be unbearable self-righteousness. Bernard DeVoto brought to Mormon history a sardonic humor, cutting, sometimes malicious, often very funny. Wallace Stegner's irony, in both his Mormon Country and his Gathering of Zion, is more compassionate and gentle, but it lightens every chapter. Kimball Young's sober, sociological analysis of Mormon polygamy has many comic moments; the title, Isn't One Wife Enough, is the only unfortunate one of them all, for it suggests a kind of polygamy joke book. Irving Wallace in The Twenty-Seventh Wife, exploits both the comic and the prurient in the polygamous life of Brigham Young; and while his book is on the whole accurate history, he gives us very little social analysis or original portraiture, except for Ann Eliza Young, whose portrait is, I think, exceedingly well drawn. Hirshson's new biography of Brigham Young unfortunately lacks humor altogether. Moreover the book is pervaded with an ill-disguised hostility, and at this late date why should anyone be hostile to Brigham Young? Burton's humor is easy to miss, buried as it is among his compulsive accumulations of data. Most Mormons are familiar with Mark Twain's irreverent description of the Book of Mormon, "chloroform in print."


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But few know Burton's description, admittedly somewhat heavier. "The Book of Mormon," Burton wrote, "emulates the sprightliness of Leviticus." 16 Burton delighted in collecting exaggerated metaphors. He tells us the Saints described the Mormon cricket as "a cross between the spider and a buffalo." And he was happy to report Heber C. Kimball's affectionate phrase to describe his forty-odd wives, "little heifers." 17 He reported with gusto the western names for whiskey — Valley Tan, Jersey Lightening, strychnine, and tarantula juice. Though he spent some time with Porter Rockwell, former bodyguard to Joseph Smith, he failed to get his affectionate name for whiskey. Stegner found it and printed it; Rockwell called whiskey "leopard sweat." There were two more characteristics which made Burton an observer of special quality. He was not a professed athiest, but he did not believe that God interfered directly in the lives of men on earth. He called the soul "a convenient word denoting the sense of personality, or identity." Conscience for him was "a geographical and chronological accident." And he defined the supernatural as "the natural misunderstood, or improperly misunderstood." "No man," he wrote, "positively, absolutely, no man — neither deity nor devil — angel nor spirit — ghost nor goblin — has ever wandered beyond the narrow limits of this world — has ever brought us a single idea or notion which belongs to another and different world." 18 I believe it to be essential that all historians and biographers share to some degree this special kind of detachment about religion that Burton had. Sir Harold Nicholson, British diarist, essayist, and critic, put it this way in his book, The Development of British Biography: "Religious earnestness is . . . fatal to pure biography. . . . A deep belief in a personal deity destroys all deep belief in the unconquerable personality of man." 19 The good historian does not go to the other extreme, believing naively that man is truly "the captain of his fate and the master of his soul." But he must believe that everything a man does can be explained by genetic endowment, by the influence of his parents, his schooling, his whole life environment, including chance. If he believes in any kind of specific, individual divine interference in the life of the man or woman about whom he is writing, the result is not history or biography but hagiogralfi

Burton, City of the Saints, 258. Ibid., 284, 263. 18 Quoted in Brodie, The Devil Drives, 278, 314-15. " H a r o l d Nicholson, The Development of British Biography

17

(New York, 1928), 110.


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phy. T h e hagiographer, he who writes the lives of the saints, he who writes with religious earnestness, serves a useful purpose to his sect, but is seldom believed outside the sect. A Moslem or Protestant cannot accept a life of Saint Catherine written by a devout Catholic, nor can a devout Christian accept as fact a life of Mohammed written by one of Allah's faithful. No one but a Christian Scientist takes seriously as divine miracles the healings of Mary Baker Eddy. And few Latter-day Saints are surprised that non-Mormon historians question the divinity of the Book of Mormon. For once one accepts specific divine intervention as fact, one joins the ranks of the true believer. T h e n one has the excruciatingly difficult task of describing and defining as an historian exactly when the divine intervention began and when it stopped. One can easily imagine the difficulties facing devout Catholic historians this year, when the pope dropped two hundred names from the approved saints list. They will face more problems as scientific tests such as Carbon 14 are increasingly applied to famous relics. T h e pope only a few months ago admitted that such tests have shown that the famous chair of Saint Peter in Rome is not as old as had been thought. Latterday Saint historians have had a similar problem in recent years with the Book of Abraham. Joseph Smith admitted at one time, "A prophet is a prophet only when he is acting as such." 20 T h e devout historian who sets about defining exactly which episodes in a particular life were stimulated by divine intervention, and which were not, encounters difficulties that the non-devout historian would find absolutely insuperable. Certainly the latter has the simpler task. The fundamental difference between the agnostic historian and the devout historian is one of intent. T h e devout historian would enshrine the dead; the agnostic would enlighten the living. T h e devout historian feels an obligation to omit that which is damaging; he has an overpowering emotional commitment to protect the dead. T h e agnostic historian cannot omit that which is damaging lest by failing to tell the whole truth he misleads the living. This is one reason why devout and non-devout historians have so much difficulty agreeing on what constitutes a fact. Finally, one must note a special talent Burton had, which is also an obvious requirement for everyone who writes about people. This was his perception of character. Burton had a remarkable capacity for getting at 20 B. H. Roberts, ed., History of the Church (7 vols., Salt Lake City, 1902-1932), V, 265.

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the core of a man either in a single interview or by sifting through a mass of documents. Here again one must emphasize that he was a man of the twentieth rather than the nineteenth century. No Victorian was less sentimental, more clinical, more intent on discovering the hidden in man. When Burton came to Mormon country, he was not yet forty, but his capacity in this respect was already formidable. One can best illustrate this by quoting what Burton wrote — and one must regret that he did not write more — about both Joseph Smith and Brigham Young. Jules Remy, a French naturalist who visited Salt Lake City shortly before Burton, and like him wrote a book on the subject, dismissed Joseph Smith, as most men did at the time, as "a mere speculator and impostor." 21 Burton took a more subtle and compassionate approach. Having himself played imposter many times, Burton knew the pleasures of disguise and pretense. But he always stepped facilely into and out of his disguises; there was purpose and control, as with an actor. Burton felt that mere imposture alone could not explain the phenomenon of Joseph Smith. He described him instead as "a man of rude genius, of high courage, of invincible perseverance, fired by zeal, of real tact, of religious fervor, of extraordinary firmness, and of remarkable talent in governing men." 22 Bernard DeVoto was inclined to dismiss Joseph Smith as paranoid and delusional. Kimball Young suggests that he was a parapath, a man who has great difficulty distinguishing between fact and fancy. Burton's view was close to that of Wallace Stegner, who wrote of Joseph Smith: "This was a mighty imagination, a man with an extraordinary capacity to move men." 23 Burton's judgment of Brigham Young was based on two or three interviews, and on hearing him speak at a conference, where among other things he noted his supreme gift of mimicry. It was based also on wide reading, as well as on a first-hand look at the heart of the Mormon empire. "The first impression left upon my mind," Burton wrote of his initial interview, "was that the Prophet is no common man, and that he has none of the weakness and vanity which characterise the common uncommon man." He was impressed by the absence in Brigham Young of bigotry, dogmatism, and fanaticism, by his cold, "somewhat blood21 Jules Remy, A Journal to Great-Salt-Lake City (2 vols., London, 1861). Burton quotes from the French edition in City of the Saints, 204n. 22 Burton, City of the Saints, 406. 23 See Bernard DeVoto, The Year of Decision, 1846 (Boston, 1943), 282; Young, Isn't One Wife Enough? 8 2 ; Stegner, Gathering of Zion, 312.


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less" manner, by his sense of power. "There is," Burton wrote, "a total absence of pretension in his manner, and he has been so long used to power that he cares nothing for its display. The arts by which he rules the heterogeneous mass of conflicting elements are indomitable will, profound secresy, and uncommon astuteness." 24 DeVoto in his Year of Decision, 1846 wrote of Brigham Young that he had "the genius of leadership, of foresight, of command, of administration, of effective will." He called him "a great leader, a great diplomat, a great administrator, and at need a great liar and a great scoundrel." And he concluded by describing him as "one of the finders and one of the makers of the West." 25 Stanley Hirshson in The Lion of the Lord has dredged up much new material, but most of it is dedicated toward documenting "the liar and the scoundrel." His Brigham Young is a "cold and calculating" leader "playing" at the "game" of salvation. He writes that Brigham Young was "bloodthirsty and benevolent, dictatorial and generous, lustful and devout," that he abandoned the "spiritualism" of Joseph Smith's church and replaced it with "iron rule, priestly bondage and materialism." 26 We never see the charismatic leader Burton saw, nor understand the successful creation of the prodigious Mormon empire. Hirshson's study serves only to underline again the rarity of Burton's approach, his combination of intellectual and cultural sophistication, plus his ability to judge character clinically and also compassionately, all of this without feeling the necessity of making any kind of moral repudiation of either the leader or his polygamous society. This is a rare combination, and it is one of the reasons historians of our own day still return to Burton with pleasure, profit, and admiration.

24

Burton, City of the Saints, 239-40, 245. DeVoto, Year of Decision, 454. 26 Hirshson, Lion of the Lord, 222, 297, 326.

25


William Henry Jackson painting of the area near Chimney The Jackson paintings used in this article are owned by the Utah State Historical Society.

Rock,

Nebraska.

Overland to California in 1850: The Journal of Calvin Taylor E D I T E D BY B U R T O N J . W I L L I A M S

X

details the overland crossing of Calvin Taylor and Charles Wesley Taylor, his nephew. I n 1850 they left their native city of Cincinnati and joined the tens of thousands who headed westward to HIS

JOURNAL

Dr. Williams is chairman of the D e p a r t m e n t of History at Central Washington State College, Ellensburg.


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California in search of gold. T h a t part of their journey extending from Cincinnati to Fort Laramie was chronicled by the editor in the Summer 1969, Nebraska History. T h e remaining portion appears here. T h e r e are several reasons for dividing the journal into two parts. In the first place the portion of the journal published here is more likely to appeal to the regional interests of those subscribing to the Utah Historical Quarterly. And secondly, the length of the transcribed journal precluded publication in one installment. T h e history of the journal itself is not very clear. It is known, however, that even though Calvin Taylor wrote the journal it ended up in the possession of his nephew Charles Wesley Taylor. Neither Calvin or Charles had a college education which may seem surprising considering the excellent prose of the journal. This may simply be attributable to the fact that the "three R's" were more assiduously pursued in earlier courses of study. Calvin and Charles Taylor returned to Cincinnati and became lost to the historical record in the anonymity of a growing urban center. Virtually nothing is known of Calvin and only a little more about Charles. Apparently Charles dabbled in several business ventures with no great success. Included among his enterprising activities was his involvement in real estate activities. Unfortunately he sold property that was to become extremely valuable at a nominal cost, and bought property which did not prove profitable. But to return to the journal. It passed into the hands of one of Charles Taylor's sons, Walter Scott Taylor, and he in turn gave it to his son, the late John Colville Taylor. At this writing the journal is on permanent loan to the Cincinnati Historical Society. T h e editor is indebted to Mrs. John Colville Taylor for much of the foregoing information. Also I would like to express my debt to her late husband, John Colville Taylor. H e not only furnished his grandfather's journal, but also offered helpful suggestions. And so here the record of still one more overland migrant takes its place among so many others. And the historical picture of the nation's most epic migration comes more sharply into focus and the record stands more nearly complete. T h e Journal of Calvin Taylor July 3rd. — Started at the usual time this morning, the character of the country having undergone an entire change, the road passing through broad defiles and between bold rocky cliffs crossing the dry beds of creeks and deep ravines. T h e Black Hills still


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in front of us appearing more lofty and distinct as we near them. 1 At a distance of about ten miles we passed a bold gushing spring of water situated a few h u n d r e d yards from the right of the road. After having gone about one mile beyond, we ascertained t h a t we could not obtain water for some distance so we unhitched our cattle and drove t h e m back to drink besides filling our water vessels. T h e spring bursts with considerable force from the base of a hill making quite a rivulet in the hitherto dry bed of a creek. H a v i n g refreshed ourselves, we continued our journey and encamped in the evening in a pleasant valley near a small stream of water. Distance 15 miles. July 4th. — T h e day opened clear and pleasant. We started at the usual time, our course lay u p the valley of a small creek affording good running for a few miles, after which our course was over rocky ridges and through deep ravines full of sand and rocks which m a d e heavy pulling for the cattle. About noon, we stopped to rest as usual and this day being a day dear to all truehearted Americans, our thoughts ran back to the land of our homes where we were wont to celebrate this ever memorable day according to our wishes and feelings, a n d though unfavorably situated to celebrate the occasion in the m a n n e r we would like. After partaking of our rather scanty meal under the shade of a tall pine, we loaded our guns a n d pistols and p a r a d e d u p and down the road, with flying colors and martial music which consisted of a clarionet a n d a c a m p kettle which was used for a d r u m , playing the national airs of Hail Columbia and Yankee Doodle, strongly reminding one of the Militia Musters of by gone days. After firing a few rounds in honor of the day, we hitched u p our teams a n d continued on our journey, the road still rough and passing through the dry beds of creeks and occasionally through running water. I n the course of the afternoon, we came upon an elevated piece of ground from which we h a d a most splendid view. A few miles to the south of us arose the lofty peak of Laramie whose rugged sides partially clad with cedars and pines, their dark green foliage together with a deep blue haze of smoke which enshrouds the m o u n t a i n giving it a gloomy yet majestic appearance, while to the north lay in the distance the rolling hills bordering the Platte whose waters are not visible to us here, and upon all sides as far as the vision can extend is presented a most beautiful sight such as one as cannot be described but should be seen to be realized. After crossing a broad valley in which we found a good spring and fine clear creek of water, we encamped for the night. Traveled 20 miles today. July 5th. — Striking our tents we continued on our journey a n d leaving the valley we ascended the hills, the road being steep and stony m a d e difficult pulling for our jaded oxen, but we soon gained the summit from which we h a d one of the finest and most extensive views we have yet had. T h e lofty Laramie is still on our left and the long dark line of the Black Hills in the distant horizon. 2 Together with the rough and broken n a t u r e of the country around they make a place of great interest. O u r road led along a high ridge from which numerous hollows and ravines ran off in a direction generally north to the Platte. T o the south of us the country is m u c h broken and cut u p with deep ravines and broad valleys stretching away to the base of the Black Hills. 1 There are occasional early-day references to the bluffs near present-day Scottsbluff, Nebraska, and the mountains of the Laramie Range as being the "lower Black Hills." 2 Once again Taylor makes reference to the "Black Hills," not to be confused with the Black Hills of present-day South Dakota.


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I n a deep ravine we saw a cliff of red sandstone contrasting finely with the green hills around. T h e soil here is poor being sandy a n d dry, the grass short a n d crisped. T h e prickly p e a r a n d wild sage taking the place of almost everything else, the sage becoming larger a n d more a b u n d a n t the farther we go. W e have seen some beautiful wild flowers for several days past the names of which we d o not know. T o w a r d s evening we descended into a broad valley a n d e n c a m p e d u p o n the bank of a beautiful creek of clear r u n n i n g water. O n our way into c a m p , we were overtaken in a shower of rain accompanied with fine hail which however soon ceased a n d we pitched our tents for the night. Distance today 20 miles. July 6th. — Resumed our m a r c h as usual this morning. M e t the Kendalls in c a m p . 3 All well. T h e country through which we passed today was rough a n d broken. O u r road led over hills, across valleys a n d ravines a n d presenting a scene of singular a p p e a r ance. I m m e n s e hills and cliffs of red sandstone a n d rocks of various kinds mixed together in promiscuous heaps in the wildest confusion, the strata dipping in every possible direction, — from a horizontal to a perpendicular position, the soil presenting a sterile a p p e a r a n c e a n d the grass short a n d crisped. T h e only exception to this is the artemisia or wild sage which flourishes the more as the soil grows poor. Passed some springs this afternoon. E n c a m p e d before sundown in a fine grove of cottonwood trees near a small creek with tolerable good grass. Distance today 20 miles. July 7th. — T h e road today r a t h e r better, our course being u p o n high ground about midway between the Platte and the base of the Black Hills to the south of us. T h e country is quite sterile, dry and sandy but a b o u n d i n g in wild sage, prickly p e a r a n d cactus, together with a few stunted bushes etc. Saw some wild oats 3 or 4 feet high which makes excellent feed for the cattle. M e t the Kendalls w h o h a d killed a fine large buffalo. Some of our m e n went in search of it and did not return until about 10 o'clock at night bringing into c a m p with t h e m three or four h u n d r e d pounds of the m e a t of which we m a d e our suppers, a n d being the first t h a t the most of us h a d ever tasted it proved a rich treat, as we h a d not eaten any fresh m e a n t since starting on our journey. Pursued our way u p the river bottom until we came to the junction of Deer Creek with the Platte. Crossed the creek which is a beautiful stream of clear water a n d proceeding u p the bottom about two miles, e n c a m p e d for the night. Nine 'o' P. M . M a d e some twenty odd miles today. July 8th. — Left our c a m p on Deer Creek and continued u p the Platte valley. T h e r e is a ferry across the Platte near the junction of the creek where we met a large n u m b e r of emigrants lying by in c a m p , some of w h o m h a d come u p on the N o r t h side of the river. T h e country still presents the same sterile appearance, the strata in the hills to the south of us standing nearly on edge a n d extending a distance of some miles. I n the morning the wind sprang u p a n d blew with such violence all day t h a t we could scarcely walk or see for dust which almost blinded us. H a l t e d at noon but could get n o grass for the cattle. Saw another buffalo this afternoon. Several m e n went in pursuit a n d wounded h i m badly but did not get him. E n c a m p e d before sundown on the river bottom. Travelled about 18 miles today. 3

them.

Taylor m a d e previous reference to the Kendalls, however, he never clearly identified


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July 9th. •— Left our c a m p about 10 'o' clock in the m o r n i n g a n d in the middle of the afternoon arrived at the U p p e r Platte ferry. A distance of 1293 miles from Fort L a r a m i e a n d 779 from St. Joseph Missouri. Pitched our tents on the bank of the river a n d drove our cattle 4 or 5 miles out a m o n g the hills to graze, the grass in the bottoms being crisped a n d parched u p affording n o nourishment whatever to our stock. T h e river here is about 100 yards wide and 3 or 4 feet deep for about two thirds of the way across. W h e n you a p p r o a c h the other shore it is from 12 to 15 feet in depth. T h e current is very rapid a n d strong, the water m u d d y and turbulent. T h e Black Hills on our left rising to the heighth of a thousand feet, bold and steep, their sides and tops covered with pines a n d cedars making a pleasant contrast to the bare and sandy plains at their base. T h e Kendalls still in our neighborhood. Distance 10 miles. July 10th. — After an early breakfast this morning, commenced crossing the river. T h e r e is a good ferry established here consisting of three boats each of which will carry two ordinary wagons with their contents. 4 A very great convenience to emigrants as the river is too swift and deep to ford, a n d doing away with the necessity of unloading and reloading wagons etc. T o w a r d s evening our cattle were driven into the river and swam over, having delayed in consequence of a strong wind which rendered it rather dangerous, emigrants having lost their cattle on such occasions. T h e mode of crossing is as follows: U p o n each shore are planted heavy posts which are securely braced, to which is attached stout ropes suspended across the river a n d elevated a few feet above the surface. T o these ropes are attached the boats by means of pullies a n d thrown in such a position that the force of the current alone carried t h e m rapidly across. Having safely crossed we hitched u p a n d went u p the river a few miles above the ferry and encamped on the river bank. F o u n d some good grass for the cattle. C a u g h t some fish this evening a n d h a d a mess for supper a n d breakfast. T h e climate is extremely dry, there b u t little if any dew at night. T h e whole country for miles is completely over run with buffalo crickets a n d grasshoppers in myriads which not only destroy the vegetation b u t devour each other. July 11th. — Resumed our m a r c h this morning. Left the Platte which inclines to the South. T h e country t h r o u g h which we passed today is the most desolate a n d barren of any t h a t we have seen. N o grass of any account and no water except t h a t which is highly impregnated with alkali and deadly to animals. O u r cattle h a d a hard days work through the deep sand a n d over rocks throughout the entire day without grass or water. Stopped at noon as usual to rest a n d take a cold lunch of h a r d bread and fat bacon which we washed down with cold coffee. T h e ground is m u c h broken and difficult to travel. O n our left rise the Black Hills while to the west and n o r t h are high and broken hills and ridges, almost entirely barren giving a gloomy a n d desolate appearance to the country which seems as though it had been swept with the bosom of destruction. Traveled on until 10 'o' clock at night and encamped, making twenty odd miles today. 4 This is no doubt the M o r m o n ferry which began operations in 1847. Also with reference to the Platte River ferry, Taylor computed the distances from Fort Laramie to California to be 1,293 miles and from Fort Laramie to St. Joseph, Missouri, some 779 miles. T h e manner of reporting these distances in the journal is confusing.


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W. H. Jackson painting of wagons approaching Independence Rock, Wyoming. This massive piece of granite was christened in honor of the birth date of the nation, by William Sublette on July 4, 1830. July 12th. -— Struck our tents and traveled about 4 miles to grass and water where we remained in camp all the balance of the day. We dropped one of our wagons and made some repairs, besides dispensing with some unnecessary weight in order to facilitate our journey. July 13th. — Resumed our march this morning, our road leading through deep sands which made heavy pulling. Passed a small creek in the forenoon of tolerable good water where we refreshed ourselves. Continued on until noon when we stopped about one hour as usual to rest and eat our scanty meal. Water highly impregnated with alkali and saleratus. Saw some large dry beds of ponds whose surfaces were completely encrusted with saleratus of considerable thickness and apparently quite pure. 5 The country still barren with scarcely any vegetation except the wild sage. Passed Independence Rock with its thousands of names.6 It is an object of great interest completely isolated and standing in the valley of Sweet Water and upon its bank the road leading along its base and affording a fine opportunity to emigrants to examine it. Passed on and encamped about one mile above on the river bank. Traveled twenty miles today. July 14th. — Finding the grass good at this place, we remained in camp all day to allow our cattle time to recruit having had but little grass for the last two weeks. Paid 5 Saleratus is baking soda. Also it is in this region of the country that the ground began to be littered by the debris from wagons which were being partially emptied to lighten the load. 6 This land mark was regarded as a major milestone on the overland trail.


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a visit to I n d e p e n d e n c e Rock and carved m y n a m e a n d date a m o n g thousands of others. 7 Ascended to the top from which I h a d a fine view of Sweet W a t e r valley and the rugged a n d towering peaks u p o n each side of us. T h e rock is of an oval form of considerable extent covering several acres of g r o u n d a n d about two h u n d r e d feet in heighth. I t is a n immense mass of solid granite traversed by veins of quartz, entirely destitute of soil save in a few crevices where there is a slight accumulation of dirt supporting a scanty growth of wild c u r r a n t bushes. July 15. — Resuming our m a r c h , we passed on u p the valley, fording the river a few miles above c a m p . W e n t to see the pass in the m o u n t a i n known as the devils gate t h r o u g h which t h e river cuts its way. I t is an immense chasm three h u n d r e d yards in length by thirty five in w i d t h t h r o u g h the solid granite. T h e sides or walls tower aloft to the height of four h u n d r e d feet u p o n each side. T h e bed of the stream is completely covered w i t h immense masses of rock which have fallen from the heights above t h r o u g h which the river dashes its impetuous way. As the traveler stands on the edge of the rushing w a t e r a n d looking u p w a r d at the dizzy height which seems as if toppling over on him, he is filled with a strange feeling of awe a n d a d m i r a t i o n at t h e g r a n d e u r a n d sublimity of t h e scene before h i m a n d h o w feeble and insignificant does m a n and all his boasted works a p p e a r w h e n compared with the Almighty power which created 7 Interestingly enough Taylor also carved his n a m e on the base of Chimney Rock in Nebraska.

Summit of Independence Rock painted by W. H. Jackson. The rock stands 6,028 feet above sea level; its northern summit is 136 feet above the terrain. With a circumference of 5ÂŁ00 feet, its mass covers an area of 24.81 acres.


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a n d upheaved these mighty masses of solid rock. These are scenes in which m a n may learn his weakness a n d dependence u p o n that Being to w h o m he is indebted for life a n d all the blessings which surround him. Passed on through the chasm climbing over rocks and a m o n g bushes on the west side of the pass a n d came out in the valley beyond, u p which we went a mile or two a n d w a d e d the river about two feet deep. Coming into the road u p o n the south side of the stream. T h e valley at this point is eight or ten miles wide upon each side of which rise the rugged mountains of solid granite to the height of one a n d two thousand feet. O n the south side, the range is densely timbered to the summit with pines a n d cedars. O n the north, the mountains are broken a n d partially barren rising abruptly from the green sward of the valley terminating in a line of broken summits, the clefts in the rocks affording a scanty soil from which grow a few scattering pines. T h e grass here is pretty good. Continued on till near sundown a n d encamped upon the bank of the river. Traveled 10 miles today. July 16th. — Continued our journey as usual this morning. As we a p p r o a c h the South Pass, the scenery becomes m o r e grand a n d imposing. A n immense chain of m o u n t a i n s bound us on either side whose broken and rugged peaks tower aloft a n d seemingly pierce the sky. 8 Some of our company ascended one of the peaks today from which they caught a first view of the W i n d River m o u n t a i n s at a distance of some seventy miles west, an immense range stretching away to the north, their snowy peaks glittering in the sunbeams like burnished silver and presenting a scene of great beauty a n d sublimity. E n c a m p e d about 6 'o' clock in the evening on the bank of Sweet Water. Distance 18 miles. July 17th. — O u r road this morning left the river inclining a little south. T h e river here leans to the N o r t h through a pass or canyon in the mountains, about 6 or 8 miles in extent, at which point the road again touches the river a n d crosses four times in a distance of a few miles. Left c a m p early in company with several others u p the river with our guns intending to h u n t along until we came u p with the wagons where the road intersects the river, but met n o game. Ascended one of the m o u n t a i n peaks from which I first caught sight of the W i n d River Mountains, distant 50 or 60 miles, looming u p in bold relief against the sky their white tops glittering in the m o r n i n g sun. T w a s a beautiful sight, one which I h a d longed to behold. O n either h a n d rise the lofty mountains of granite, whilst below m e the beautiful Sweet W a t e r w o u n d its serpentine course along through the grassy bosom of the valley, and altogether forming a scene which to be realized in its fullest extent should be seen. E n c a m p e d before sundown on the bank of the river in view of the W i n d River Mountains. Saw a buffalo on the south side of the river. Some of the m e n t went in pursuit but could not succeed in getting near him. Distance 18 miles. July 18th. — Continued our course as usual, the road very sandy m a k i n g h a r d work for the oxen. T h e country is still broken a n d mountainous, immense masses of rock piled on rock towering aloft with broken a n d craggy summits and nearly destitute of vegetation excepting a few pines a n d the never ending artemisia or wild sage, giving the mountains a gloomy yet imposing appearance. T h e road here diverges from the 8 While one is tempted to excuse the superlative tones in which Taylor couches his descriptions of the "rugged peaks" near South Pass as poetic license, it may be that one seeing the mountains after months on the plains would regard them as towering.


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river for a distance of 16 miles before it again touches it, a n d there being no water on the way we filled our kegs a n d canteens at the river. Stopped at n o o n to allow our cattle to graze a n d rest dividing our little supply of water a m o n g t h e m . Towards evening the country became m o r e level, the mountains diminishing on either h a n d a n d diverging n o r t h a n d south. W e have n o w high bluffs of great extent, level on top w i t h here a n d there isolated hills or bluffs all m a i n t a i n i n g the same general level. T o w a r d s sundown, our road led down a high bluff into a valley of Sweet W a t e r where after fording we e n c a m p e d for the night. O u r cattle were driven down the valley about three miles to graze, the grass being eaten off near the c a m p . Charles a n d myself with some 4 or 5 others were appointed to stand guard over them. W e shouldered our guns a n d blankets after supper a n d going d o w n to where the cattle were grazing we built a large fire of the Bois de V a c h e a n d spreading our robes, we rolled ourselves in our blankets with our feet to the fire. W e slept as comfortable as though we h a d been at home, except being disturbed occasionally by the distant howl of some hungry wolf. T h e night was beautiful a n d clear, the climate is extremely dry a n d very little if any dew a n d consequently very little d a n g e r of taking cold. July 19th. — Started about 8 O'clock in the m o r n i n g ; nothing of interest transpired today. T h e character of the country has been the same as for a day or t w o past. This m o r n i n g from a high bluff I h a d a fine view of W i n d River M o u n t a i n s whose snow c a p p e d summits glittered in the rays of the m o r n i n g sun stretching away to an immense distance. O n e of the grandest sights I have ever seen. E n c a m p e d early in the evening n e a r t h e entrance of a deep gorge or defile in the mountains through which flows the Sweet W a t e r from the southwest. T h e road here leaves the river for some 14 miles before it again comes to it. Distance traveled today 14 miles. July 20th. — C o n t i n u e d on as usual. O u r road led today over the hills which are very high b u t of gentle ascent. U p o n the tops of the hills the strata is in a vertical position, very rough a n d broken a n d extending for a long distance u p o n the ridges. T h e road passes over these rocky ridges which were not only h a r d u p o n the cattle but seemed to threaten the dislocation of our wagons already the worse for the wear. T o w a r d s noon we descended into a valley a n d e n c a m p e d for the day u p o n a small stream, a tributary of Sweet Water. Drove our cattle across a ridge to the south of us a b o u t three miles to Sweet W a t e r where we found excellent grass, the river passing for a n u m b e r of miles t h r o u g h a canyon or n a r r o w gorge of perpendicular cliffs does not a d m i t of any travel along its banks. T h e r e are occasionally some n a r r o w strips of bottom along the river which are covered with a luxuriant growth of grass a n d dense thickets of willows amongst which is seen the sweet wild rose in full bloom perfuming the air with its rich fragrance, a n d the ground thickly m a t t e d with the wild strawberry vine, whilst upon the cliffs at intervals were beautiful shady groves of the quaking asp in pleasant contrast with the otherwise barren country a r o u n d . July 2 1 s t . — R e s u m e d our m a r c h this morning. H a d a storm of w i n d a n d rain last night. W e a t h e r cold this morning, requiring our overcoats to keep us comfortable. We are n o w fairly in the South Pass, the Rocky M o u n t a i n s in full view, their rugged peaks c a p p e d with glittering snow. Stopped at noon on the Sweet W a t e r w h e r e we found a b a n k of snow a n d ice at the foot of a bluff and exposed to the rays of the sun which


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W. H. Jackson painting of a wagon train at South Pass, Wyoming. South Pass was the thoroughfare for both the California Trail and the Oregon Trail — the corridor between the Atlantic and Pacific worlds.

was quite a curiosity to us. Continued on till evening a n d e n c a m p e d on the bank of Sweet W a t e r where we have an excellent view of the mountains. Distance about 20 miles. W e are now within a few miles of the summit of the pass which we are all eager to see. July 22nd. — Left c a m p about 8 O'clock this morning. After traveling a b o u t 5 or 6 miles, we crossed the dividing ridge or Summit of the South Pass. T h e rise is so gradual that you can scarcely percieve it. T h e pass is about twenty miles in w i d t h a n d so easy is the ascent along the Sweet W a t e r t h a t you can hardly realize the great elevation to which you have attained, being 7,490 feet above the gulf of Mexico. T w o miles more brought us to the Pacific Springs whose waters flow to the Pacific O c e a n , the fountain head of the great Colorado of the west. T h e water is perfectly clear a n d cold as ice. T h e r e are several of these springs which rise in a low marshy flat covered with a thick sod of grass which yields at every step being a perfect quagmire a n d it is with great difficulty t h a t the springs can be approached. Previous to reaching the springs, I climbed a m o u n t a i n of about two thousand feet elevation to the south of the road from which I h a d a magnificent view of the gigantic Rocky M o u n t a i n s whose lofty a n d rugged peaks capped with eternal snow glittered in the rays of the sun a n d seemingly pierced the sky. Beneath my feet gushed the crystal waters a u g m e n t i n g in volume, pursuing their winding way westward towards the setting sun, receiving tribute from


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every little rill and brook until lost in distance. While to the south and east, wagons seven in n u m b e r having run off from us below Independence Rock in consequence of the difficulty existing between the Company and Captain Wright and of his noncompliance with his contract. 9 Whilst we lay at Independence Rock, some of our men went in pursuit of them armed to the teeth with revolvers, bowie knives etc. determined to take them by force if necessary. They overtook them at this point, where they soon came to a reconciliation, the runaways agreeing to wait until the train came u p in order to get more provisions. T h e pursuing party in the meantime changed their minds and concluded to go along with them. T h e balance of our company consisted of 35 men. Deeming our provisions and teams insufficient to take us through, we determined to proceed to Salt Lake City to recruit and obtain supplies. Accordingly, arranging matters the best as we could, the two parties separated from each other and bidding a rather formal farewell were soon lost to each others sight. 10 T h e country is still barren and sandy, the wild sage flourishing in abundance. Traveled until noon and halted at Big Sandy to graze the cattle and take some refreshment ourselves. About the middle of the afternoon we proceeded on our journey until near midnight when we halted and turned the cattle out to graze there being no water here. We all lay down to rest a few hours. Started before daylight of the 25th. Traveled on until about 10 'o' clock when we again came upon the Big Sandy. A distance of 17 miles from C a m p of the 23rd. Drove our cattle u p the river bottom to grass. Started about the middle of the afternoon from c a m p on Big Sandy. After travelling some 8 miles over a level country towards evening we reach Green River, the great Colorado of the West. A fine stream of water about 200 feet wide and five or six feet deep with a swift current and very clear and cool water abounding in fine fish of which we caught a few called M o u n t a i n Trout. We pitched our tents for the night on the bank of the River. July 26th. — After breakfast this morning, we crossed the river in a ferry boat kept by some Mormons, the mode of crossing being similar to the ferry on Platte River. A strong rope is stretched across the river and fastened to strong posts to which the boat is attached by ropes and pullies, the force of the current carrying it rapidly across. We have dropped another wagon having now but five with seven men to each. Continued our course along the river bottom and encamped about six or seven miles below the ferry on the bank of the river. T h e margin of the river is fringed with cottonwood, willows, etc. while the islands are densely timbered and abounding in grass. July 27th. — Started early this morning. We here left the river. Inclining to the west across the river bottom we ascended there some bluffs. O u r route lay through the same character of country as that traveled over for several days past, the wild sage and some other shrubs, the prickly pear and a variety of flowers being the only vegetation. T h e timber confined to water courses and upon islands. T h e face of the country is a vast rolling plain with low ridges and isolated hills which are covered with boulder stone. T h e plains are gravelly and sandy, the river bottoms have tolerable good soil "Earlier Taylor mentioned "Wright and Co.," however, he did not elaborate on the nature of contract arrangements with Wright, the size of their party, costs, etc., nor does he ever clearly identify who or what constituted "Wright and Co." 10 It appears that a disagreement had been brewing for some time, however, the nature of the difficulty is never made clear.


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a n d p r o d u c e fine grass. T o the southwest of us are the W a h s a t c h M o u n t a i n s whose tops are covered with snow. At the distance which we n o w see t h e m , they lift their peaks in lofty majesty towards the sky piercing the clouds with their heavy heads a n d standing as mighty l a n d m a r k s to the wayfaring traveler. After m a k i n g about 18 miles, we e n c a m p e d on the banks of the Black Fork, a tributary of Green River. July 28th. — Left our e n c a m p m e n t this morning. T h e country is still the same. O u r course since leaving the South Pass being southwest generally over a level country with low hills a n d ridges presenting a desert a p p e a r a n c e . Crossed in our course several streams, tributaries of Green River. I n the afternoon we h a d rains with high wind b u t towards evening it cleared u p a n d became pleasant. O u r course is bringing us nearer every day to the M o u n t a i n s which increase in m a g n i t u d e as we a p p r o a c h them. T h e nights a n d mornings are disagreeably cool owing to the great elevation a n d the vicinity of the snowy peaks. O u r m o r n i n g a n d evening fires we find very comfortable. After traveling about 19 miles, we e n c a m p e d u p o n the b a n k of a considerably [sic] stream convenient to good grass. U p o n the banks of the stream is a scanty growth of willows, the dry branches of which together with sage bushes afford us material to m a k e comfortable fires. July 29th. — W e a t h e r cool this m o r n i n g . After breakfast, four of our c o m p a n y started in a d v a n c e for Salt L a k e City, distance over one h u n d r e d miles, taking their blankets W. H. Jackson painting of Fort Bridger, Wyoming. Fort Bridger was established about 1842 by Jim Bridger, famed mountain man. The fort was purchased by the Mormons in 1852 and abandoned by them in 1857 with the advance of Colonel Albert Sidney Johnston and the United States Army. Later used periodically as a military post, it was finally abandoned in November 1890.

i,;i,v/


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a n d provisions on their backs with the intention of m a k i n g arrangements for exchanging our cattle for horses or mules in order to facilitate our journey t h r o u g h from that point. W e were fully convinced t h a t our present teams were not sufficient many of t h e m being completely worked d o w n and crippled together with the lateness of the season a n d the scarcity of grass. I n the afternoon, we came to a broad a n d extensive valley in which were n u m e r o u s streams of water. H a d a storm of rain accompanied w i t h hail a n d strong wind. W e are still nearing the mountains. Passed Fort Bridger situated in the valley. W e e n c a m p e d towards evening a few miles beyond n e a r a grove of cedars of which we m a d e comfortable fires. July 30th. — R e s u m e d our journey as usual this morning. O u r course for a few miles lay over the same descriptions of country which we h a d been traveling for many days. L o n g level ridges a n d wide plains. About noon we descended a long a n d steep bluff into a broad green valley with plenty of grass a n d solid oats a n d a clear swift stream of water. W e stopped here to noon. I n the afternoon our course lay u p the valley, the hills u p o n either side having m o r e or less timber, while in the valley are groves of willows. T h e universal sage still abounds. This is one of the finest valleys we have seen west of the m o u n t a i n s , filled with fine grass a n d beautiful wild flowers in the greatest profusion. Passed some springs strongly impregnated with copper and iron. E n c a m p e d on the summit of the ridge connecting the Bear a n d W i n d River chain of Mountains. July 31st. — T h e m o r n i n g opened clear a n d cool owing to the great elevation of our c a m p which is a b o u t 8000 feet a n d affording an extensive view on every side. Within probably 15 miles of us arose the Majestic W a h s a t c h range whose snowy peaks penet r a t e the u p p e r regions. F o u n d some excellent springs of water a n d good grass near o u r c a m p . O u r road today led over an interesting portion of country of a mountainous character, high hills a n d extensive ridges. T o w a r d s noon, we descended from the u p l a n d into a deep valley in which was a small creek where we stoped to noon near an excellent spring. C o n t i n u i n g our winding way a m o n g the hills, we descended into a fine valley of Bear River, a bold rushing stream of clear, cool w a t e r whose source is in neighboring M o u n t a i n s . This is a beautiful valley of considerable extent with a good soil a n d luxuriant grass. O n the banks of the river are tall cottonwood trees, some few pines a n d large groves of willows, bushes a n d shrubbery of various kinds. Along the hill sides are i n n u m e r a b l e flowers of great variety a n d beauty a m o n g which I noticed t h e wild sun flower besides other kinds which were entirely new to me. Encamped about the middle of the afternoon convenient to wood and water. August 1 st. — Started as usual this morning. F o r d e d Bear River which was about h u b deep. T h e bed of the stream is entirely covered with boulder stones a n d m a d e it quite difficult for the oxen to get secure footing. T h e country broken a n d mountainous, the valleys affording excellent w a t e r a n d grass. Passed a n u m b e r of fine springs along the road. O u r road has been d o w n hill all day but quite gradual, the formation of the hills being red a n d grey sandstone a n d immense masses of gravel firmly cemented together, the clay or loam being of a reddish n a t u r e . T h e soil in the valley appears to be good. E n c a m p e d before sundow 7 n in a grassy valley n e a r a good spring of water.


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W. H. Jackson painting of a wagon train camped in Echo Canyon, Utah. In 1857 the Mormons built fortifications in the canyon against the "invading" government troops. With the construction of the transcontinental railroad, Echo City, at the mouth of the canyon, was a thriving community for a short time. With the passing of the rails westward, the town quieted.

325 August 2 n d . — O u r course today southwest. Traveled all day down a small stream of water which we crossed at least a dozen times. T h e same kind of country as for a few days past. T h e mountains rising to an immense height on each side, red a n d grey sandstone and gravel being the formation. Passed several fine springs. We h a d some of the roughest and most difficult road today that we have h a d during our journey. T h e crossings at the creek are steep and miry. O u r road for the last two days has been t h r o u g h an extensive defile or pass in the mountains walled in by immense cliffs of rock. Saw a great variety of flowers, wild hops, service berries, wild currants, cherries etc. in the creek bottom, whilst the m o u n tain sides and tops were partially covered with cedars a n d quaking asps. T o w a r d s evening, we reached the foot of the pass on Webers Fork of Bear River at which point there is a new route to Salt Lake City called the Golden Pass, 40 or 50 miles in extent, recently opened by the M o r m o n s a n d u p o n which emigrants are charged toll for wagons, horses, cattle, etc. by the order of the proprietor Brigham Young, who is their chief or president. 1 1 W e took the old road to the right and passing down Webers Creek a few miles encamped for the night.

August 3rd. — Resumed our journey. Crossed Webers Creek two miles from C a m p . O u r course led u p a small stream between the mountains. H a l t e d at noon a n d after dinner commenced the assent of the mountains, the rise being gradual. I n about three miles, we reached the summit which afforded a fine view. T o the west arose the snow capped peaks of the Wahsatch m o u n t a i n s glittering in the sun a n d u p o n all sides the view was grand and impressive. H i g h peaks a n d long ridges met the eye in all directions. T h e descent of the m o u n t a i n was rather difficult, the road being steep a n d rocky in many places leading from one side of the ravine to the other. D u r i n g the descent, one of our wagons upset in a ditch about 8 or 10 feet deep and lighting u p o n the cover with the wheels uppermost, throwing provisions and baggage into a heap besides injuring a m a n w h o was in the wagon at the time, the contents of the wagon covering him u p in the ditch. H e received some bruises about the head, not serious however. H a v i n g drawn out the wagon from the ditch a n d replaced the load, we reached the foot of the 11 Apparently Taylor's party was short on money and chose the older and longer route to Salt Lake City as a result.


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m o u n t a i n before sundown a n d encamped on the bank of K a n y o n Creek, a tributary of Salt Lake, a fine stream of water whose banks are lined with an almost impenetrable thicket of bushes, small trees, etc. a m o n g which was the Wild Cherry. August 4th. — Left c a m p as usual a n d after traveling u p K a n y o n Creek a few miles, our course turned west u p a large ravine between the mountains. T h e road was extremely rough a n d bad, being in places almost obstructed by immense quantities of boulder stones, some of which were as large as barrels a n d sorely tried our wagons and oxen. D u r i n g the ascent another of our wagons upset a n d pitched the contents into a small rivulet without doing m u c h d a m a g e however. T o w a r d s evening, we encamped in a cottonwood grove near some fine springs, within one mile of the summit of the pass a n d five miles from the base of the mountain. T h e sides of the mountains are covered with cottonwood, quaking asp, balsam, fir etc. August 5th. — Soon after leaving c a m p , we reached the summit of the pass from which we h a d a distant view of Salt Lake valley and the snow capped mountains in the vicinity. O u r road today very rough a n d steep descending rapidly a n d passing through n a r r o w gorges in the m o u n t a i n s which rise thousands of feet u p o n either side and most admirably situated for defense, where a few resolute and determined men by a proper selection of position could effectually defend themselves against a host of enemies. T o w a r d evening, we emerged from the m o u n t a i n defiles into the broad and fertile valley of the Lake, which at this point is about 50 miles in width a n d walled in

W. H. Jackson painting

of the Great Salt Lake Valley,

Utah.


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on both sides by the U t a h and W a h s a t c h range of mountains, whose highest peaks are white with snow, while to the West lay extended the great n a t u r a l curiosity, the Salt Lake, an object of great interest a n d from whose placid surface arose its lofty M o u n t a i n islands whose rugged a n d barren sides are beautifully reflected in the glassy bosom of its waters and the d i m a n d misty outlines of the mountains beyond whose forms seemed to recede a n d fade away until lost in the distant horizon which bounds the great basin. T h e gentle a n d quiet J o r d a n pursuing its winding way t h r o u g h the green a n d luxuriant valley fed in its course by innumerable brooks a n d rills from the m o u n t a i n s whose snowy peaks afford a never failing supply a n d pouring its rich tribute of waters into those of the briny Lake, which still retains its saltiness notwithstanding the immense quantities of fresh water which flow into it from various quarters. T h e valley is dotted with farmhouses, barns, stables etc. with enclosures of large a n d extensive fields in which stand the ripening grain ready for the reapers sickle a n d here a n d there large quantities of the fresh cut grain standing in shocks while in other places, the reapers are busily engaged in cutting, binding a n d shocking it u p . T h e harvest is a b u n d a n t , yielding from 40 to 50 bushels to the acre of good w h e a t of which they have m a n y varieties, a m o n g which are included two or three kinds t h a t is sown in the spring a n d coming to maturity as soon as t h a t sown in the fall. Of this kind is the Saos w h e a t which has a fine large a n d smooth head a n d not bearded. T h e stalks are large a n d tall. This w h e a t is usually sown in drills, 8 to 10 inches apart, but comes u p as thick as t h a t sown in the ordinary way. Besides they have the different kinds of State wheat, all of which come to great perfection a n d entirely free from rust etc. C o r n does not thrive here so well as in t h e states owing probably to the dryness of the climate, but all the different garden vegetables come to great perfection, such as potatoes, tomatoes, beets, beans, peas, squashes, melons, etc., all of which are in great a b u n d a n c e . E n c a m p e d towards evening on a bluff or bench of the m o u n t a i n , at whose base is situated the town, partially hid from our view by the bluff. N e a r our c a m p , which is two miles from the city, are several ditches which convey water from the mountains for irrigation a n d other purposes. T h e water is perfectly cool a n d clear a n d affording to the city a constant supply. August 6th. — Left c a m p this forenoon and passed t h r o u g h t h e city a n d encamped on the bank of the river J o r d a n , two miles west of the city a n d turned our cattle out to grass, intending to remain here until arrangements were m a d e for the further prosecution of our journey, the prospects for which, however, were rather discouraging. This was a joyful occasion to us notwithstanding our prospects for the future, as if afforded an opportunity of present relief a n d of obtaining the rest we all so m u c h needed, worn down by our long a n d tedious journey through a wild a n d inhospitable region a b o u n d ing in dangers a n d difficulties, t h r o u g h all of which a kind providence h a t h safely conducted us without the loss of one of our number, whilst h u n d r e d s of our fellow beings were cut down by the ruthless h a n d of death, far from their homes a n d kindred and of which we h a d a b u n d a n t proof as we journeyed along. Seldom a day passed without seeing m o r e or less along the r o a d ; the majority however were buried at c a m p i n g grounds a n d places away from the road. I a m fully convinced from w h a t I have seen myself a n d from w h a t I have heard from persons of veracity that the n u m b e r u p to this point, a distance of between 1100 a n d 1200 miles from Missouri, would be equal to one for every mile, which is certainly not far from the actual number, besides the large


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n u m b e r of emigrants who returned from different points along the road in consequence of the severe sickness and some of w h o m we met at the junction of the north and south forks of the state, between three and four h u n d r e d miles from the frontier, panic stricken and making the best of their way towards home. All these circumstances tended more or less to fill our minds with gloomy forebodings, but we nevertheless determined to proceed, considering it far more dangerous to return than to go forward, as we were daily approaching a more elevated region of country abounding in good water and a pure a n d healthy atmosphere. T h e Great Salt Lake City is handsomely laid out — situated on the north side of the valley at the foot of a high bluff or bench of the U t a h range of mountains, the ground falling gradually toward the river J o r d a n between one and two miles distant. T h e streets are of great breadth a n d cross each other at right angles, forming large squares which are cut at regular distances by streets of a smaller size, dividing the square into equal parts. T h e whole city is divided into wards of which were nineteen, over each of which a bishop presides. T h e city is not compactly built, being unlike all other cities in this respect. T o each house is allowed one and a quarter acre of ground which is enclosed a n d sufficient to produce all the necessary garden vegetables in the greatest profusion, besides a considerable quantity of wheat and corn, quite adequate to the wants of each family. This arrangement of houses and lots gives to the city quite a pleasant a n d rural appearance, and might with propriety be called an agricultural city. 12 T h e city is watered from the mountains by means of ditches which convey the water through every part of the city; each principal street having a stream u p o n each side, from which are sluice ways to conduct the water into the gardens for irrigation and other purposes whenever required. T h e houses are built of adobes or sundried bricks which are m u c h larger than the ordinary brick, being 12 inches long, 6 inches wide, and 21 inches thick. They are of a lead color a n d have the appearance at a distance of being painted. T h e r e are no bricks burned here owing to the great scarcity of wood, the adobes answering a very good purpose as the climate is mild and dry, requiring the eaves to be projected to protect the walls from rain, a n d make it a very comfortable dwelling. T h e houses are generally moderate sized and from one to one a n d a half storys high and built in m o d e r n style. T h e r e is a large public building called the State House now being finished.13 I t is a square building two storys high. T h e first story is built of a reddish sandstone with sills and caps of the same material. T h e second story is built of adobes. It is altogether quite a respectable building and situated upon the corner of one of the principal streets. Besides there are several stores — a post a n d printing office, and mechanic shops of various kinds, and a large n u m b e r of buildings now in process of erection. Opposite the state house is the church, an immense building of a temporary character designed only for present use, it being the intention of the Mormons to build a magnificent temple far surpassing in splendor a n d magnitude the far famed temple of Nauvoo, all of which n o doubt they have the energy and ability to accomplish, 12 Taylor's description of Salt Lake City is unique to the point of calling special attention to it; i.e., "an agricultural city." 13 This is the Council House, located on the southwest corner of South Temple and Main streets. This was the first government building constructed in U t a h Territory.


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judging from w h a t they have already achieved during the short time which has elapsed since their arrival a n d settlement in this valley. A p a r t from their peculiar notions a n d religious doctrines, the enterprize, perseverence a n d public spirit of these people is deserving of all praise a n d w o r t h of emulation. A large square of ground is reserved for the new temple. T h e y intend to commence quarrying the stone this fall, p r e p a r a t o r y to laying the foundation, the whole superstructure to be built entirely of marble from the neighboring mountains, of which there are inexhaustable quantities, h a n d s o m e a n d durable. D u r i n g my stay here I attended c h u r c h on Sunday afternoon, where was assembled a vast concourse of citizens a n d emigrants, a n d a preacher from O h i o addressed the audience, not a M o r m o n however as I understood. His discourse was singular, the subject of which was the disciples of Christ, t h e motives by which they were actuated in following him, a n d which h e contended were of a mercenary character a n d not from a love of the doctrines which Christ taught, their only object being self aggrandisement, love of popularity, fame, etc. H o w far these views accorded with the feelings of the multitude, I know not, but it struck m e as being strange h o w a m a n in this enlightened age could so construe the simple reading of the acts of the disciples, and of ascribing to them motives which every honest m a n would disdain without once reflecting t h a t "with w h a t j u d g m e n t ye judge, shall ye be j u d g e d , " and that in endeavoring to misrepresent the motives a n d defame the character of the worthy followers of Christ, charging t h e m with infamy, deceit, a n d hypocrisy is himself a false pretender a n d places himself in a very unenviable position a n d one in which he is liable to have the fidelity a n d purity of his own motives called in question at least by all honest a n d liberal minded men. U p o n the close of the discourse, the services were concluded with prayer, reading of notices, and after which followed music by a splendid brass b a n d w h o occupied a large platform (on the front of which were seated t h e Clergy), playing waltzes, marches etc. Immediately all was excitement, a confused h u m of voices r a n through the assembly, friends a n d acquaintances were interchanging salutes, all was hilarity, a n d an entire absence of that respectful solemnity c o m m o n to most temples of worship, strongly reminded one of some holiday occasion when people are wont to collect to indulge in a social intercourse a n d judging from outward appearances, one would suppose the M o r m o n s to be a h a p p y people. I t is clear however that theirs is a religion which addresses itself direction [sic] to the passions, congenial to the fallen n a t u r e of m a n , a n d devoid of the spirituality of t h e gospel. W e find the M o r m o n s to be a civil and quiet people, but still smarting u n d e r the recollection of the wrongs inflicted u p o n t h e m by their persecutors for w h o m they indulge the most bitter hatreds, a n d cultivate a spirit of revenge, invoking curses u p o n t h e m even to the fourth generation. D u r i n g our stay here we boarded at the house of a M o r m o n citizen, W m . Wadsworth, a very intelligent a n d gentlemanly m a n , to w h o m we feel indebted for the kind a n d hospitable treatment we received while w e remained at his house, a n d the valuable information a n d advice he gave us in reference to the routes, etc. for which we shall ever hold h i m in grateful remembrance. August 1 4 t h . — R e m a i n e d in this place u p to this time. I n the m e a n t i m e it became evident to us all from the unsatisfactory m a n n e r in which C a p t . Wright conducted


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himself, causing unnecessary delay, etc., that he was unwilling or unable to make the necessary arrangements for the further prosecution of our journey, a n d being asked repeatedly w h a t he intended to do, and receiving n o satisfaction, the company dem a n d e d of h i m an equal distribution of the property of the train, in consequence of his noncompliance with his contract, to which he very willingly acceeded, glad no doubt to get off so well. 14 Accordingly we m a d e an equal division as near as possible of the property, at the same time allowing C a p t . Wright a very liberal share, notwithstanding his ungentlemanly conduct towards us, did not justly entitle him to anything. T h o u g h the company might in justice have stripped h i m of everything, to their honor be it said, they did not feel disposed to injure h i m in any way, which they could have done for the m e a n a n d niggardly treatment they received at his hands. O u r mess consisted of five; viz., P. T . Tierney, H . Hill, R. Whitby, Charles, and myself. O u r portion was one wagon a n d three yoke of cattle, tent, cooking utensils, etc. O u r wagon a n d cattle we sold a n d bought a light wagon a n d three good horses, besides selling our tools a n d as m u c h of our personal property as we could possibly do without, which together with w h a t little means we h a d with us a n d t h e rigid economy we were forced to practice, enabled us to make a new outfit. W h e n after having reduced our baggage as m u c h as possible a n d buying m o r e provisions, we commenced our journey u n d e r more favorable auspices; taking the n o r t h e r n route a r o u n d the lake the balance of our company going the south route or cut off having to cross a desert of near one h u n d r e d miles in extent without grass or water. 1 5 O u r course lay along the base of the U t a h M o u n t a i n s which are of great elevation with occasional patches of snow u p o n their summits, they lay east of the lake and stretch away to the north. Between the m o u n t a i n s a n d lake is a broad valley, which is in a fine state of cultivation, the settlements extending a distance of about forty miles north of the city. A few miles beyond the city we passed the W a r Sulphur Spring highly impregnated, but of very agreeable temperature. T h e water is conveyed through logs to a bathing establishment recently p u t u p near the city. A few miles farther on are the H o t Sulphur Springs, the w a t e r of which is of a m u c h higher temperature, sufficient to cook eggs, etc., a n d bursting from the base of the mountains in a large volume and m a k i n g a bubling noise. T h e water is clear as crystal and emitting a strong sulphurous odor. T h e pebbles a n d e a r t h over which the w a t e r runs are covered with a coloring m a t t e r resembling verdigris. Continued our journey towards evening, m a k i n g some 18 miles. W e encamped near a fine stream of water with good grass a n d plenty of wood. After dark it commenced clouding u p , the wind blew hard. About 9 o'clock it began to rain with t h u n d e r a n d lightning, a n d continued through the night. W e were rather poorly prepared for rain having sold our tent at the city. W e m a n a g e d however, to pass the night tolerably comfortable, one laying in the wagon, the balance u n d e r n e a t h , this being our first night out a n d as we expected to travel principally alone, we all agreed to stand guard alternately half the night each in order to guard against surprise by Indians who 14 Again the provisions of the contract, etc., are not made clear, however, the matter was finally settled short of bloodshed. 15 T h e cutoff, or southern route, was presumed to be shorter, however, considering the hardships encountered over this route many preferred to circle north and then westerly around the Great Salt Lake.


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are said to be very thievish and treacherous on this route. T h e r e are a n u m b e r of Indians in the vicinity of the lake w h o belong to the U t a h tribe. They are quite friendly but disgustingly filthy in their habits, their principal food being fish a n d a very large species of crickets which they roast and prepare in different ways. T h e y are a numerous a n d unlike tribe but generally friendly to the Whites, owing no doubt to the proximity of the M o r m o n s of w h o m they stand in dread. 1 6 August 15th. — After breakfast resumed our journey u p the valley through the settlements. T h e soil is excellent, producing an a b u n d a n c e of everything necessary for the sustenance of m a n . I n the afternoon we reached Brownsville on Weber River. A fine a n d flourishing settlement about forty miles from Salt Lake City; continued on four miles beyond and crossing a large creek, we encamped for the night convenient to good grass and water. Distance today — 26 miles. August 16th. — Resumed our journey, our route still u p the valley in a north course, a n d along the base of the mountains which rise to an immense height, while on our left the valley stretches away for miles to the lake, the margins of which are white with salt. Towards noon we passed several hot springs which were impregnated with salt and sulphur and bursting from the foot of the mountains in large streams, crossed several fine creeks of pure water, passed a wigwam of U t a h indians who all came running out to see us. T h e y are a sprightly and talkative people, rather forward and troublesome and most accomplished beggars. They teased us for powder balls and caps which we very unceremoniously refused giving them, thinking it bad policy to lend a club to break our own heads. We gave t h e m some tobacco and passed on. Towards sundown we crossed a fine creek and encamped in the bottom near the base of the mountain where we found excellent grass. Distance today — 25 miles. August 17th. — This morning while preparing our breakfast we h a d three I n d i a n visitors, w h o very composedly seated themselves opposite us intently watching our movements. They appeared to be middle-aged and very sedate and quiet. We offered t h e m something to eat which they readily accepted. While they were eating we heard a distant yell a n d looking down the road saw an I n d i a n riding at full speed toward us. H e soon came u p a n d dismounted. We invited him also to eat something. H e was an active and sprightly Indian, very talkative, and withal rather meddlesome and forward, casting many a wishful look in the contents of our wagon and making himself rather too free for so short an acquaintance. H e carried a rifle and rode a very wild and spirited pony, which appeared as restive as its rider. W e suspected them of some mischief and kept an eye upon their movements. After breakfast we hitched u p and took leave of our I n d i a n guests, w h o lingered awhile and disappeared. Towards noon passed several hot springs, some of which were impregnated with salt and others with sulphur. T h e ground around the springs is covered with saline encrustations which resembles very m u c h a heavy frost. Arrived at Bear River about 6 o'clock, P.M. I t is a fine stream of water over one h u n d r e d feet wide and three or M Taylor did not elaborate as to why the Indians feared the Mormons. Actually, Mormon policy toward the Indians was to placate them rather than fight them. Mormon colonists to new areas were often counseled by their leaders to follow this policy.


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four feet deep at the ford. M e t a party of emigrants at the river w h o h a d lost nine mules d u r i n g last night. W h e t h e r they h a d strayed or were stolen by the Indians they did not know, but most likely the latter. C o m m e n c e d preparations for crossing, unloaded our wagon a n d cutting some willows we laid t h e m across the top of the wagon bed a n d u p o n t h e m w e placed our baggage a n d provisions. T h u s prepared, we drove in. T h e current quite strong, two of our company w a d e d along side to assist in case of need. A footman with a pack on his back requested permission to hold on behind, which we granted him. W e reached the opposite b a n k in safety, but owing to the steepness of the bank a n d the situation of our load elevated u p o n willow poles which h a d already begun to roll a n d slip the water being within a few inches of o u r provisions, we d a r e not a t t e m p t to drive u p for fear of losing our entire load. O u r wagon and horses remained in this position until the content of our wagon was carried on shore by those in the water. W h i c h done, we drove out replaced our load a n d continued on about three miles to M u d Creek and e n c a m p e d w h e r e w e found good feed and water. T u r n e d our horses out to feed, securing t h e m with lariats to prevent t h e m from straying. M a d e 23 miles today. August 18th. — Left c a m p after breakfast. I n about two miles we came to some fine springs from which we watered our horses a n d filled our water vessels, t h e r e being no water for a distance of 14 miles. H a v i n g now t u r n e d the northern point of the lake, our course inclined southwest a m o n g the mountains the passes through which were of gentle ascent a n d descent. I n the evening, we came to the w a r m a n d cold springs. T h e r e are a n u m b e r of t h e m bursting from the foot of the m o u n t a i n a n d uniting they form a considerable stream of water. Some of the water is moderately w a r m , some cool, a n d has a brackish taste. Filled our keg a n d canteens a n d continued on about three miles where we found good grass a n d encamped for the night. Distance today — 24 miles. August 19th.—-Resumed our journey. O u r road still a m o n g the mountains which are of m o d e r a t e size a n d destitute of timbers. Passed several creeks of r u n n i n g water in the course of the day. T o w a r d s evening, we descended into a broad a n d extensive valley, the road t h r o u g h which was m u c h cut u p a n d extremely dusty. T h e whole valley as far as the eye can reach being densely covered with sage a n d grease wood bushes giving it a dull a n d gloomy a p p e a r a n c e . O u r general course still southwest. T o w a r d s evening we e n c a m p e d on deep creek which here spreads into a marshy flat, a n d is finally absorbed by the sandy n a t u r e of the soil a n d disappears. Found good grass here a n d lariated our horses for the night. Distance today — 22 miles. August 20th. — Continued our course across the valley which stretches away for miles towards the mountains which bound it on all sides. I t presents a very sterile appearance a n d overrun with wild sage. T h e r e are occasionally some patches of grass dry a n d stunted. Stopped to noon after which we continued on and reached the foot of the m o u n t a i n towards evening where we stopped to water our horses. W e n t on about 1 mile a n d encamped on the side of the m o u n t a i n n e a r an excellent spring of water a n d good grass. N e a r our c a m p was a grove of cedars a n d we procured large quantities of the dry wood which m a d e us most comfortable fires during the night.


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August 21st. — M a d e an early start this morning. O u r road lay for several miles along the bench of the mountains, after which we descended into a valley a n d crossed several streams of water. T h e country through which we are now traveling is very broken a n d mountainous, some of the highest peaks having snow u p o n them. Whilst in the valley, the weather is hot a n d sultry. I n the afternoon we crossed Cassius Creek, a fine clear stream with pebbly bottom, u p which we traveled several miles a n d encamped convenient to water, wood and grass. N e a r the mountains the soil of the valley is poor a n d sterile except along water courses where there is generally an a b u n dance of grass a n d other vegetation. Traveled 28 miles today. August 22nd. — I n a short time after leaving c a m p this morning, we reached the bench of a m o u n t a i n u p which our road led. T h e way was rough a n d steep. I n about 5 miles we reached the junction of the old Fort Hall a n d Salt Lake R o a d . This is quite a picturesque place. O n the old road near the junction are some high conical hills which are appropriately n a m e d , called Steeple Rock, between which the road passes of just sufficient width in one place to a d m i t a wagon. Crossed the m o u n t a i n into another extensive valley which we crossed a n d commenced the ascent of another mountain. T h e road lay along a small creek which heads in the m o u n t a i n . Stopped at noon to rest and feed our horses. After reaching the summit we h a d one of the most extensive views of the country which is very broken a n d mountainous, presenting one of the most irregular scenes I ever beheld. O n all sides as far as the eye could reach was presented a scene of the most utter desolation. Immense masses of rock riven a n d shattered, the fragments strewn in the wildest confusion around, while the sterile mountains lifted their tall heads in gloomy silence as if contemplating the scene. A thick haze or smoke pervaded the atmosphere which lent additional gloom to the scene. Everything around bore ample evidence of some mighty convulsion of nature, which doubtless occurred ages ago when this vast extent of country was upheaved by volcanic agency from the bowels of the great deep. 'Tis here t h a t m a n m a y form some h u m b l e conception of the mighty forces of nature, when set in motion by t h a t Almighty Power w h o created the universe a n d sustains those mighty globes a n d systems of worlds which move through illimitable space, each in its orbit with such perfection a n d harmony. Nothing can exceed the gloomy gradview of the scene. F a r as the vision can extend, ruin and desolation meet the gaze. 'Tis here t h a t n a t u r e reigns supreme a n d will remain unsubdued by m a n in all time to come, and never here will the eye of the traveler be greeted with the sight of the pleasant farm house, the stately barn, the broad and waving fields of ripening grain, nor his ears be saluted with the busy h u m of h u m a n voices. N o cities will be seen with their glittering domes a n d spires reflecting the brilliant rays of the Meridian sun, nor humble village quietly nestled in the cool shades of the forest, nor aught of m a n or his works. I t is a country in which m a n can make n o p e r m a n e n t residence a n d must forever remain so. A n d were it not for the allurements of the beautiful country beyond, would perhaps remain u n t r o d d e n by the feet of civilized man. 1 7 17 J o h n J. Ingalls perceptively commented on the future prospects of civilization in the Great Basin area while visiting Salt Lake City in the 1890's. See the article by this editor in the Autumn 1966 issue of the Midwest Quarterly entitled, "Mormons, Mining and the Golden T r u m p e t of Maroni," pp. 67-77.


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T h e road today was very crooked, steep, a n d rough. Descended towards evening into the extensive valley of Goose Creek, the banks of the streams fringed with willows. F o u n d the grass rather scarce. Crossed the creek and selected a place for c a m p . Distance — 20 miles. August 23rd. — Left c a m p as usual. O u r road lay along the valley of Goose Creek, the soil of which is rich and producing good grass. O n the mountains are some scattering cedars, whilst the whole surface of the country is overrun with the wild sage which increases in size a n d quantity in proposition as the soil becomes more sterile. Passed some U t a h Indians camped in the valley, some of w h o m came out to the road to trade with some emigrants who h a d stopped. T o w a r d s sundown we reached the end of the valley and encamped near the creek. We found the grass scarce here. We found some bunch grass u p o n the sides of the mountains which was so steep and rocky for our horses to climb, we p u t the lariats on them a n d staked them on the creek bank. After supper when the moon arose, some of our mess went u p the side of the m o u n t a i n with knives a n d cut a quantity of grass for the horses to last t h e m during the night. Distance — 17 miles. August 24th. — After breakfast we resumed our journey. O u r road led through a canyon or pass in the mountains, which arose bold and precipitous on either side of us. Immense quantities of rock lay strewn a r o u n d which appeared to be impregnated with iron ore, a n d the cliffs on each side are of the same character. O u r road this forenoon was extremely rough a n d rocky, requiring very careful driving to prevent our wagon from being broken. T h e character of t h e country is broken and mountainous and quite sterile. We found it very difficult to obtain sufficient grass for our horses. I n the afternoon we entered an extensive valley, and found a fine spring of water from which we refreshed ourselves, filled our water vessels, having been without water since morning. Continued down the valley 5 or 6 miles and encamped for the night. Found a few scattering bunches of grass. Owing to the lateness of the season and the immense emigration which has passed t h r o u g h here, we found the grass almost entirely consumed, in consequence of which our horses have fared rather bad for several days past for w a n t of the necessary feed. M a d e about 18 miles today. August 25th. — O u r course today was still down the valley, the country presenting the same sterile appearance, water a n d grass scarce. Towards evening however, the grass became quite a b u n d a n t a n d plenty. O u r horses having been on short allowance for some days, we encamped before sundown in order that they might recruit themselves. 14 miles today. August 26th. — Pursued our course down the valley, reached the end about 2 o'clock, P.M. Entered a canyon a m o n g the mountains, the road tolerably steep but smooth. T o w a r d s evening we descended into a small valley, a n d encamped at the head springs of Canyon Creek, a tributary of H u m b o l d t River. A few miles to the south of us tower the H u m b o l d t Mountains, whose highest peaks are partially covered with snow. T h e whole country thus far, is extremely broken a n d mountainous, there are valleys of some considerable extent, which are susceptible of cultivation. T h e country generally, however, may be termed a desert, the grass very scarce, having been eaten down by the


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vast multitude of horses, mules, and oxen which have passed through. T h e country is destitute of timber except upon some of the highest mountains, and is principally cedar. U p o n the margins of the streams grown stunted cotton woods and willows, which together with the artemisia or wild sage, grease wood, etc. completes the vegetation. Distance today — 20 miles. August 27th. — Continued our course down the valley of Canyon Creek. For a few miles after crossing a ridge we entered upon a more open and level country. T o the south are the H u m b o l d t Mountains, the highest range in this vicinity upon the most elevated peaks of which the snow rests in dazzling whiteness. O u r road here passes the north end of the range whose general course is north and south. T o the north and west of us, the dim and misty outlines of the mountains are scarcely perceptible, from the smoky nature of the atmosphere. We are now fairly within the circle of the great interior basin of California. 18 A vast desert of burning sands strewn with heaps of volcanic ruins as far as the vision can extend. There is a b u n d a n t and satisfactory evidence that nature has underwent some terrible and mighty convulsion. A scene of more complete desolation could not well be imagined. T h e parched and stunted vegetation struggling for existence, the thirsty a n d cracked earth, drinking and absorbing the feeble streams which flow from the mountains, together with the universal and deathlike stillness which reigns around, naturally inspires the mind with a train of gloomy forebodings and enkindles a feeling of awe a n d admiration. But, the mighty forces which wrought this ruin and desolation around now lies dormant and pent u p in the bowels of the earth, where it has slumbered for ages ready to leap forth at the command of the Almighty, with the accumulated power and energy of centuries, with a force that will shake earth to her center a n d spread ruin and desolation through the fair fabric of creation. We are now upon the head waters of H u m b o l d t River. O u r course today was southwest. Continued down the valley and encamped for the night. Distance today — 20 miles. August 28th. — O u r course today was down the valley of H u m b o l d t River. This is quite an extensive valley and abounding in excellent grass. Early in the season the valley was inundated with water, in consequence of which we have an unusual abundance of grass, a fortunate circumstance for us considering the vast emigration which had preceeded us, the advance guard of this immense army of emigrants having passed during the overflow and prior to the a b u n d a n t growth of grass and carrying with them feed for their animals. H a d it not have been for this, there would have been considerable suffering, as but little grass could be had upon the sandy plains and barren side of the mountains. T h e weather here was extremely w a r m and sultry, the nights cool but without any dew. I found this portion of the country very different from what I had anticipated, from the idea of the term "Great Basin" which I supposed was a level and low section of country with but few highlands, although in reality it is a basin of vast extent and of great elevation, but broken and mountainous and traversed in all directions by innumerable ranges of mountains, some of which are of considerable elevation. It is 18

This would be present-day Nevada.


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an immense desert with few exceptions and were it not for the few streams of water which flow in it would be impassible for m a n and beast. Pursued our course down the valley and encamped on the banks of the river convenient to grass and fuel. M a d e some twenty odd miles today. August 29th. —• Resumed our journey early this morning. N o particular change in the appearance of the country, our course still lay down the river bottom. O u r road diverged two or three times today from the river which entered canyons among the mountains. After crossing some low ridges, we came again into the valley. Continued on till near sundown and encamped near the river where we found an abundance of excellent grass for our horses w h o know how to appreciate it. We use great caution with our horses to prevent t h e m from straying or getting stolen by Indians who infest this route a n d commit depredations of various kinds upon emigrants. I n selecting our c a m p i n g place, we endeavored to find an open space convenient to grass and water. W e stake out our horses at some distance before dark, reserving a sufficient space n e a r the wagon for them to graze during the night. Get through cooking generally before dark in order that our fire m a y not be discovered, and securing our horses near us, each one taking his regular t u r n at standing guard half the night each. This we found to be a severe duty, worn down by the fatigues of a long days m a r c h through the burning sands, but to which we cheerfully submitted, considering that not only our safety but perhaps our lives depended upon our watchfulness and vigilance. We h a d not as yet been molested by t h e m although we had traveled most of the way entirely alone, frequently camping miles from the vicinity of other emigrants. Nevertheless we were satisfied that the Indians were lurking near us, watching an opportunity to m a k e a descent upon us, which they could easily have done as we were poorly prepared to resist an attact, having but one serviceable gun and a pistol which only went off occasionally. But of this, of course, the Indians knew nothing about, accordingly making a bold front thinking it our best policy, the Indians generally not willing to r u n the risk of being shot for the sake of plunder, but stealing unawares upon the emigrant in the dead hour of night when he least expects them and silently stealing away his horses, mules, and oxen. Several instances of the kind occurred near us on several occasions where large companies were thus robbed from w a n t of proper vigilance a n d allowing too great scope for their stock. Traveled 20 miles today. August 30th. — Continued our course down the valley. About 10 o'clock, A.M. we came to the junction of the southern road or cut off from Salt Lake, where we met a n u m b e r of emigrants w h o came by the cut-off, some of w h o m left Salt Lake City ten days before we did. They report the desert over one h u n d r e d miles in extent without feed a n d water, p a r t of the road west of the desert very rough and difficult. T h e distance to the junction is called 375 miles by this route, while the old trail or northern route is 350 miles and decidedly the best. T h e majority of emigrants who come by the southern road were induced to believe from reports circulated at the Lake, that it was the best route and that it shortened the distance very materially and supposing they could make the trip through to the mines in about 20 days laid in their supplies accordingly. W h e n at this stage of their journey, the supposed time having already elapsed and the distance only half accomplished, many of t h e m unfortunately found


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themselves nearly out of provisions, some having but a few days supply on h a n d a n d b u t little chance of obtaining any m o r e as the majority of emigrants h a d barely sufficient to last t h e m through a n d could not with safety dispose of any less they too might suffer. F r o m the emigrants we learned t h a t the Indians h a d been very troublesome on the cut-off route a n d t h a t not long since a battle h a d been fought between the Indians a n d a party of emigrants in which six of the latter were killed, five m e n a n d one boy. O n e of the m e n was supposed to be 70 or 80 years from appearance, his head being perfectly white. T h e emigrants interred their remains a n d in searching around found the bodies of two Indians w h o no doubt were killed in the same affray. While on the northern route, the Indians confined their depredations to stealing horses a n d mules and offering no violence to persons as yet as far as we knew of. W e h a d so far escaped molestation from t h e m which was doubtless owing to the precautionary measures we h a d adopted, and our unceasing watchfulness a n d vigilance to which we owe our safety. T h e river below the junction of the two roads enters a canyon through which the road lay for about 5 miles, when we again emerged into the valley and encamped on the river bank convenient to grass a n d fuel. D i s t a n c e — 18 miles. August 31st. — Nothing of particular interest transpired today. J u d g i n g that we were in the advance of the balance of our company, wTe inscribed our names a n d date on a large rock by the road side. September 1st. — Resumed our journey as usual this morning. T h e road here diverged from the river a n d crossed a range of hills. Part of the way the road led t h r o u g h a canyon which was extremely rough a n d rocky. I n the course of the forenoon we saw near the roadside a h u m a n skull, which from appearance we supposed to be t h a t of a white m a n w h o h a d recently died or was killed perhaps by Indians. T h e skull looked fresh, some of the sinews were yet attached to the jaws. Some emigrants w h o overtook us stated that they saw a short distance behind, p a r t of the body a n d lower extremities of a white m a n not yet decayed a n d to w h o m no doubt t h e skull belonged. This in all probability was one of the many footmen who travel alone a n d thus fall an easy prey to the treacherous Indians. Stopped at noon near some springs where we rested a n d ate our dinner, after which we continued our course till near sundown a n d encamped on the river banks. D i s t a n c e — 17 miles. September 2nd. •—• Early this m o r n i n g whilst we were preparing breakfast, some of our old company overtook us unexpectedly, they having come by the cut-off. W e were all very glad to meet each other again and exchange friendly salutations and talk of past occurrences. T h e r e were five of t h e m ; namely, Brookins, Cole, Adams, Wiley, and Arthur. 1 9 T h e y h a d dropped their wagon after crossing the great desert a n d packed u p o n their horses which accounts for their overtaking us as we still retained our wagon. T h e y report unfavorably of the cut off route, there being a great deal of suffering a m o n g emigrants, and the distance as great if not greater t h a n the northern route. T h e y left the balance of the company in a rather critical situation, their teams having 18

As usual Taylor does not clearly identify the parties named.


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failed and from the great scarcity of feed and water, it was feared that they might suffer considerably. Crossed another range of hills this forenoon, after which our course lay down the river bottom in a west course. Passed the grave of a young m a n by the n a m e of Bowles of Illinois who was shot about two weeks since in a fight between the emigrants and Indians which occurred about 10 miles to the right of the road near the mountains, his friends bringing and interring his remains at the roadside. Continued on down t h e valley as usual, we encamped and found good fuel, grass and water for the night. Distance — 20 miles. September 3rd. — Left c a m p as usual this morning, our course being still down the river. Crossed the point of a mountain. T h e road was very rough and sidling. We m a d e but slow progress, after which our way lay across an extensive bottom. A perfect desert for a distance of 13 or 14 miles. T h e dust lay to the depth of several inches dry and fine as flour. T h e day was w a r m and sultry and the travel of so m a n y teams along the road raised an immense cloud of dust which was almost suffocating. About 1 o'clock, P.M., we reached the river again where we found grass and stopped to noon. After dinner we continued our course down the valley which is of great extent. H u n d r e d s of acres of the valley was covered with a luxuriant growth of wild oats which stood as high as our heads. W h e n not full grown it makes excellent feed for horses a n d cattle. Passed some large trains today, the road was crowded with wagons of every description, and horses, mules, and oxen in hundreds besides large numbers of packers, m a n y of w h o m were traveling on foot with their packs on their own backs; in fact, the road was literally lined with emigrants so we had n o lack of company. Towards evening we encamped near the river bank, where we found good grass. Distance — 24 miles. September 4th. •— Nothing particular occurred today. About noon we met a large train from Missouri consisting of 37 wagons drawn by oxen and laden with provisions principally bacon for the California market. We bought a few pounds of bacon and coffee for which we paid t h e m 50^ per pound, the majority of the emigrants being short of provisions. We encamped near the river. Distance — 20 miles. September 6th. — Left c a m p about 5 o'clock this m o r n i n g to h u n t grass, being obliged to keep our horses tied u p . After going about iy2 miles we came to good grass and water where we remained till near noon to allow our horses to recruit. We then took our dinners and started on our way. T h e road today has been very bad, the sand very deep, making very h a r d pulling; the whole country being in fact a perfect desert except along the river bottom. T h e weather is quite hot through the day. T h e nights are very cool, no dew of any consequence falls. Here we are approaching the sink of the river. T h e country still mountainous and barren — no wood to be seen yet. Kept on till near sundown when we encamped on the river bank. M a d e about 10 miles today. September 7th. — Resumed our journey as usual. O u r road soon left the river bottom a n d on the bench of the mountains the road in the forenoon was very sandy, being


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several [illegible] for our horses in ascending a slight rise it was with difficulty our horses could pull the wagon. About noon we turned in to dinner. F o u n d poor food for the horses. After remaining about iy2 hours we started again. T h e road lay along the river. About the middle of the afternoon we stopped to camp, finding excellent grass of which we cut near 300 pounds to last across the desert which is some 30 miles distant a n d very little grass to be had this side of the desert. Last night was w a r m and sultry. During the night we h a d heavy t h u n d e r and lightning, with it smart showers of rain — the first we have h a d with one exception since leaving Salt L a k e City. M a d e about 15 miles today. September 8th. — H a v i n g laid in our supply of grass we left c a m p as usual. After going a few miles our road left the river. Ascending the bench of the mountain we found the road very deep with a fine dust which the wind lifted as we passed along whisting it aloft in circling eddies. I n about 10 miles we reached the river again where we stopped to noon, t h e roads upon both sides of the river lined with emigrants. Continued down the river alternately in the bottom and on the bench of the mountains, the country still a most sterile appearance, broken and mountainous and destitute of timber, sage, and other bushes, together with willows being about the only thing seen. Camped near sundown on the river, finding good grass a n d water. We m a d e about 15 miles today. September 9th. — T h e road this forenoon led down the river bottom and was pretty good. Stopped about noon to rest after which we ascended the bench of the mountain along which we traveled until near sundown when we descended into the river bottom and encamped. F o u n d the grass very scarce. T h e Kendalls camped on the opposite side of the river from us — all well. 20 M a d e about 20 miles today. September 10th. — O u r road today has been a difficult one on the bench of the m o u n tain, being very dusty a n d cut up. T h e whole country as far as the eye can reach presents one of the most dreary and desolate pictures my eyes ever rested upon. N o grass except in the river bottom which is very scarce owing to the vast emigrations, some portions of which are completely swept of every blade. Along this strewed the remains of wagons, harness, clothing, etc., the persons abandoning their wagon a n d packing upon animals. T h e road is literally strewed with dead cattle, horses, and mules. Stopped to noon giving our horses some of the grass we h a d cut. Pursued our journey along the bench of the m o u n t a i n through the dust and sand and encamped on the river bottom making about 20 miles. O u r horses for the last few days have nearly run down for the want of proper feed. September 11th. — Resumed our journey ascending the bench of the mountain, the road still dusty and sandy, getting worse if possible. Every day grass getting thinner and more scarce making it very difficult to keep u p our horses. H a d it not been that we were lucky in cutting grass a few days before, our horses would have given out. Stopped at noon to rest our horses, giving them the last of the grass we had cut. From appearances we supposed we were approaching the meadows. Pursued our journey 20

T h e Taylors and Kendalls were in periodic contact throughout their overland crossing.


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a few miles find it to be the case. Passed through some old camping grounds where emigrants have stopped to prepare for the passage of the desert. Saw immense quantities of every variety of articles thrown away, horses, wagons, cooking utensils, boots, shoes, clothing, stoves, etc., etc., together with hundreds of dead cattle, horses and mules presenting somewhat the appearance of a battlefield. K e p t on a few miles and encamped at the m e a d o w of the bank of a running stream of water, intending to recruit our horses and cut grass for the desert which is about 15 miles distant (to the sink) . 2 1 F o u n d a n u m b e r of emigrants here on the same business, quite a n u m b e r of the digger tribe of Indians prowling around seeking opportunities to steal horses, mules, etc. M a d e about 17 or 18 miles. September 12th.—-Remained in c a m p today to recruit ourselves a n d horses. Cut grass a n d prepared for crossing the desert which is 40 miles across, our c a m p , at present being about 15 miles from the sink of the river which is the commencement of the desert. W e cut about 150 pounds of a species of cane or reed which is very good and nutritious, the grass being very difficult to get growing in swampy places. In order to get to it you are compelled to wade sloughs, etc. besides standing in water to your knees in order to cut it. T h e cane we procured on dry ground in a short time. This is a general rendezvous for emigrants preparatory to crossing the desert. T o d a y a m a n arrived with a wagon load of flour from Carson River valley to sell to emigrants, besides a n u m b e r of m e n with pack mules with flour, coffee, sugar, brines $1.25 for a p o u n d , bacon from 500 to $1.00 per pound, other things in proportion. T h e r e is a general scarcity of provisions a m o n g emigrants, some being in a suffering condition, living for days u p o n [illegible] beef alone. September 13th. — Resumed our journey as usual this morning, intending to go but a few miles toward the desert to secure good camping ground with grass and water. Some 4 or 5 miles from c a m p we found some excellent grass which we cut the day previous, the horses not liking it m u c h . Cut a n d bundled some 200 pounds or more, in the meantime allowing the horses to graze. Proceeded on. T h e road lay through the bottom, being very dusty a n d sterile. N o grass or water near, the horses becoming fatigued, one of them soon giving signs of giving out, we unhitched, p u t t i n g the remaining one in its stead, kept on. Coming in sight of a lake or sink of the river, this cheered us u p , b u t upon reaching it we were greatly disappointed finding it strongly impregnated with saleratus and salt [alkali] a n d unfit for use. W e were compelled to proceed a n d going a short distance, one of our best horses fell in his harness in the road from fatigue a n d thirst. We urged him on, however, a mile or two and encamped near sundown in company with some 5 or 6 wagons — emigrants from Iowa. O u r prospects for the present looking rather gloomy, we felt more or less depressed in spirit, being foiled as it were upon the very threshhold of the desert, but none the less determined, our intentions were to have retained our wagon to carry our water and grass across the desert, then to throw it away a n d pack our remaining 21

This is probably the Humboldt Sink.


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baggage and provisions on the horses. But, the prospect for either arrangement being very slim, our thirst being so great, we were compelled to use the water which is m u d d y and very disagreeable to the taste, using it for cooking, etc. T h e weather here is disagreeably w a r m through the day, the nights very cold, making it difficult to keep w a r m with all our clothing and blankets. Notwithstanding our difficulties, we are well a n d hearty and intend if our horses fail to shoulder our packs, to foot it the balance of the way, the distance being over 200 miles. M a d e almost 15 miles today. September 14th. — Remained in camp today being unable to proceed on account of the condition of our horses. I n part, m a d e an arrangement with a m a n from Iowa to haul our baggage and provisions across the desert for which we gave him our wagon and harness, intending then to pack upon our horses, should they be in a proper condition. If not, we shall resort to some other means. Emigrants in every possible condition are passing hourly, packing on horses, mules, oxen, a n d large numbers on foot with their packs on their backs. W e are still forced to use the slough water for cooking, drinking, watering our horses, etc. We are not alone in this respect, hundreds of others being caught in the same predicament. It is a common and perhaps a true saying that "misery loves company". Be this as it may, it is no joking matter. We are some 8 or 10 miles from the terminals of the sink which is the commencement of the desert. We expect to make an early start in the morning. September 15th. — Started this morning between 3 and 4 o'clock. After traveling about 10 miles we came to the sink and laid by to breakfast and rested our horses and gave them feed. Crossed the slough of the river on the southside, filling our water vessels with water from the slough which was so highly impregnated with alkali that we could scarecely use it, b u t with us it was hobson's choice. Started upon the desert about 9 : 0 0 A.M. T h e weather w a r m but not disagreeably so. O u r course being south across the desert towards Carson's River. About 1:00 P.M., one of our horses gave out from exhaustion a n d we were reluctantly compelled to leave it to its fate. We learned afterwards that one of the m e n belonging to the train who was behind seeing the condition of the horse, cut its throat thus releasing it from its misery in proportion. As we advanced, we saw the carcasses of horses, cattle, etc., strewed along the road. I n fact the entire distance, 40 miles, literally lined with the dead bodies of animals from which an intolerable stink arises. T h e r e are hundreds, perhaps thousands, thus laying along the way, besides hundreds of wagons, some entire, others torn to pieces with an ennumerable quantity of articles of every description such as are required for an expedition of this kind. But, owing to the failure of teams in crossing, emigrants were compelled to abandon and resort to packing u p the remaining animals or upon their own backs. Continued on till about 3:00 P.M. to water and feed. After remaining two hours we pushed forward on our toilsome way. T h e road for the most p a r t being dusty and sandy, m a d e slavish work for the stock already suffering for want of proper feed and good water. But this was no time for delay. We pushed onward till after night which was cool and pleasant, it being a clear moonlit night.


Crossing of Carson River was done by two artists. H. V. A. von Brechkh, who was with the Captain James H. Simpson exploring and surveying expedition of 1859, did the original drawing, and J. J. Young made the finished watercolor. This painting is in the Cartographic Division of the National Archives, Washington, D. C.

As we passed along the wrecks increased u p o n our vision; horses, wagons, oxen lay scattered a r o u n d on all sides as far as we could see; the clearness a n d stillness of the night interrupted only by the noise of t h e passing train as we slowly moved along. This valley of d e a t h was calculated to p r o d u c e any b u t pleasurable sensations. Continued our weary way t h r o u g h d e e p sand a n d dust until a b o u t 12:00 at night. W e lay down to rest, m a k i n g some 30 miles of the distance, giving the stock t h e remaining feed a n d water. September 16th. — After enjoying a few hours sleep u p o n the ground, we resumed our journey just before the break of day. As the day d a w n e d u p o n us presenting a most gloomy aspect, passed several graves one of which the wolves h a d been digging to get t h e corpse b u t owing to the sandy n a t u r e of the soil, they were not able to succeed. W e soon discovered a long strip of woods in the distance — a favorable sign of water. Soon m e t some m e n returning w h o h a d gone ahead to the river who told us we were near. W e soon reached Carson's River in which ourselves a n d our horses quenched o u r thirst from p u r e r u n n i n g water. T h e river here is some 20 or 25 yards wide a n d 2 to 3 feet deep. T h e banks are fringed w i t h willows a n d large cotton t r e e s — a n agreeable sight to us. All remained at the river until afternoon. O u r prospects looked r a t h e r gloomy.


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After revolving the m a t t e r over in our minds a n d having but two horses left, one of our mess m a d e arrangements to get his baggage, etc., hauled it in a wagon. H a v i n g more baggage a n d fixtures t h a n they could carry, we concluded to overhaul a n d t h r o w away everything we could spare. Accordingly, we w e n t to work a n d soon m a d e things adjusted. Commenced packing, having bought more provisions, paying 200 per p o u n d for flour, 75^ to $1.00 for bacon. T h e r e are quite a n u m b e r of traders here from California with provisions of all kinds on which they m a d e a handsome profit. H a v i n g all things in readiness, we took u p our line of m a r c h going u p the river one or two miles a n d encamped for the night. F o u n d a little grass a n d willows for o u r horses across the river. September 17th. — Commenced our journey this m o r n i n g u n d e r more favorable circumstances, having eaten an early breakfast and adjusted the packs on the horses, we started u p the river on our course. As we were winding our way along the road, one of our horses being very hungry, plunged into a willow thicket a n d went over the bank into a slough, getting complete [illegible] and unable to rise from t h e weight of the packs. W e flew to her relief a n d after removing the load, got her o u t without any difficulty and pursued our way until about 10:00. Stopped to feed b u t could get nothing but willows which our horses could not eat. Ate our dinner a n d went on. A few miles u p the river found some grass. T u r n e d the horses to graze after which we continued on following the river, the main road leaving the river for 12 miles, over a strip of desert without grass or water the road along the river being a pack route and impracticable for wagons, sometimes passing along the bench of a hill affording a narrow footway. Part of the way the river was through a canyon then widened out to a valley, t h e road still sandy a n d heavy and rocky. T h e country still presents a most dreary aspect being very broken a n d mountainous a n d perfectly sterile excepting along the river along the banks of which grow large cottonwood and willow trees with bushes of various kinds, grass rushes, etc. Pushed on u p the river a few miles further a n d seeing some excellent grass across the river, it being about 4 : 0 0 a n d our horses very weary since crossing the desert, we concluded to cross a n d finding a [illegible] place, we turned in to the bottom. W e found it extremely rocky which h u r t our feet considerably in wading. However, we all got over without an accident. Selected a good place for c a m p , turned out t h e horses to graze. This afternoon two m e n with a pack mule fell in company with us, intending to travel with us the balance of the way. September 18th. -— Arose early this m o r n i n g having h a d a comfortable nights rest a n d the horses doing very well. After breakfast we arranged our packs, recrossed the river and pursued our course u p t h e river bottom a n d after going a few miles, came to the junction of the m a i n or wagon road where after a distance, it again strikes the river. K e p t on u p the river a few miles. T h e road crossing a high ridge or bench leaving the river a short time, descending upon the other side into a n extensive bottom u p which we went a mile or two. C a m e to a trading post where were a n u m b e r of emigrants lying by to recruit their stock, others waiting for the balance of their company to come u p . T h e river making a great head to t h e southeast for m a n y miles, we again left the river, ascending a bench of the m o u n t a i n a n d crossing a desert of ten miles,


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c a m e again to the river which we crossed a n d stopped to noon t u r n i n g our horses out to graze. R e m a i n e d two or three hours. Continued u p the river, t h e country still extremely mountainous a n d broken, the m o u n t a i n s getting m o r e heavy as we advance. This afternoon we caught sight of some distant peaks with snow which we took to be the Sierra N e v a d a or some of its parallel ranges, the general course being N o r t h a n d South. T o w a r d s evening came to another trading post a n d turned into a bend of the river a n d e n c a m p e d for the night where we found good grass a n d let t h e horses loose to graze, selecting our c a m p i n g place u n d e r some large cottonwood trees a n d commenced operations for supper. O n e of our c o m p a n y having killed a large duck, we fell to work a n d m a d e a pot pie sticking in some pork a n d dough, m a k i n g a fine mess which with bread and coffee we m a d e a most comfortable meal which strongly reminded us of h o m e which we sat a n d talked about sometime after which we returned to rest, m a k i n g 23 or 24 miles today. September 19th. — Resumed o u r journey as usual, our course still along the river bottom. After going some 14 miles we stopped to noon, remaining about 2/2 hours, we started again. I n a b o u t 3 miles we reached a m o u n t a i n bench or ridge, the road here leaving the river. W e ascended the ridge which we found very rocky and dusty a n d fatiguing to ourselves a n d horses. T h e mountains growing more heavy a n d timber beginning to a p p e a r in a b u n d a n c e m a k i n g quite a contrast to the bald a n d barren hills a n d mountains we have seen for some h u n d r e d s of miles, the distant peaks of the Sierra N e v a d a M o u n t a i n s looming u p in bold relief against the sky. Pursued o u r course across the ridge a distance of 12 miles where we again struck the river after sundown. T h e grass at this point was completely eaten off so we were compelled to go on. This is a very b r o a d a n d extensive valley [Carson]. After going some 4 miles u p the bottom, we succeeded in finding good grass a n d water, it being a bright moonlight night a n d about 8 : 0 0 when we got in, encamped for the night after p a r t a k i n g of some coffee a n d bread. M a d e some 30 miles today. September 20th. — R e m a i n e d in c a m p later this m o r n i n g in consequence of our hard drive yesterday in order to allow our horses to feed sufficiently. Started about 8:00. O u r course lay u p the valley. Again o u r general course today being southwest along the base of the m o u n t a i n s which rise on o u r right thousands of feet in elevation, quite steep a n d clad with pines from the base to the summit, presenting a most grand and beautiful sight. F r o m the base burst a n u m b e r of beautiful and transparent springs a n d streams of water, cool a n d refreshing, frequently crossing our road. Towards evening we passed a n u m b e r of hot sulphur springs bursting from the base of the m o u n t a i n . T h e water too hot to hold the h a n d in a n d from which arises a hot sulp h u r o u s smell. O n our left lays extended the broad a n d extensive valley t h r o u g h which Carson River winds its serpentine course, the banks fringed with willow a n d the valley clothed with a luxuriant growth of grass looking like an immense field of ripened grain. Passed a n u m b e r of trading posts today with coffee, sugar, flour, bacon, etc. to sell the emigrants. Passed on a n d e n c a m p e d near the m o u t h of a canyon a n d a n e a r route to Sacramento City, being a pack route which we intended taking in t h e morning. M a d e about 16 or 18 miles today.


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September 21st. — After breakfast, getting everything in readiness, we commenced our journey leaving the Carson Valley. Entered the canyon which is n a r r o w a n d steep. After going a short distance we commenced the ascent of t h e m o u n t a i n which is very steep a n d rocky. T h e track is very narrow, a mere bridle p a t h passing over loose stone, gravel, a n d sand along the steep sides of the m o u n t a i n . I t was with the greatest difficulty t h e horses could climb. W e frequently h a d to stop to let them rest as well as ourselves. As we ascended we h a d a fine view of Carson Valley stretching away for miles and the river pursuing its serpentine course quietly a n d the distant range of mountains, some of t h e m capped with snow. After gaining the summit's 2000 or 3000 feet elevation, we began to descend gradually a n d about noon we reached the base or valley beyond. About the middle of the forenoon it commenced raining moderately a n d continued o n till after midnight when it ceased. O u r road today has been t h r o u g h an immense pine forest, the most beautiful trees I ever beheld growing from 100 to 200 feet in height a n d from 4 to 6 feet in diameter, straight a n d tapering away to a mere point. I n fact, the whole country is densely timbered; the valleys, the mountains from their bases to their summits which penetrate the clouds. Pursued our way along the bench of the mountains until towards evening when we descended into a valley a n d encamped for the night. T h e w e a t h e r was disagreeable, the night set in storm. W e soon collected a fallen timber a n d m a d e a good fire, it being pine and full of needles, it blazed brightly m a k i n g us all quite comfortable. Cooked our supper, spread o u r bedding u n d e r a large spreading pine, which afforded some little shelter from the wind a n d rain. T o n i g h t our prospects were rather gloomy from the fact of the lateness of the season a n d the liability of being overtaken in t h e snow, a few inches in depth of which would completely obliterate o u r road making it dangerous for us to go forward or back, added to which we h a d b u t 2 or 3 days provisions a n d m a d e us feel anything but pleasant. However, we did not despair b u t lay down to rest waiting the result of morning. M a d e about 15 miles today. September 22nd. — T h e m o r n i n g a p p e a r i n g more favorable, we concluded to go on getting o u r early breakfast a n d we were soon on our way. After going 2 or 3 miles we crossed a stream of water a n d commenced the ascent of a n o t h e r mountain. W e found it difficult b u t not so m u c h as the one yesterday. W e soon gained t h e summit from which we h a d a full view of the country. T o the right of us lay a beautiful lake whose liquid surface lay becalmed in the bosom of the mountains a n d a beautiful green valley which lay between us and the lake m a d e a scene of peculiar beauty. Descending, our road lay t h r o u g h a canyon which widened into a valley. For a short distance from the valley, we descended again into a canyon, rocky a n d steep, walled in on either h a n d with a rugged a n d precipitous side of the m o u n t a i n which rose some thousand feet towering, towering towards the sky in lofty majesty, whose peaks covered with snow were sometimes hidden in t h e clouds. R e a c h i n g the foot of the canyon a n d crossing a foaming m o u n t a i n torrent which c a m e leaping and rushing down with its spray lashing into a foam as white as snow, m a d e a scene of surpassing beauty.


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[illegible] a n d commenced the ascent of a n o t h e r m o u n t a i n ridge of some thousand feet elevation. This we found difficult b u t not so steep as t h e first one. After gaining a level spot from which burst some springs, w e took the w r o n g road which was only a c a m p road a n d led us to the top of the m o u n t a i n — the highest w e have yet climbed. D u r i n g the ascent we h a d become heated a n d covered with perspiration. W e soon felt the affects of t h e cold wind which chilled us through. W e h a d to resort to o u r coats for protection against [illegible] W e h a d one of the most extensive views we have yet had, on everyside of us arose ridge after ridge in aweful majesty as far as t h e eye could reach, while beyond us some h u n d r e d s of feet lay extended broad [illegible] of snow, little lakes a n d streams of water rushed themselves down the precipitious sides of the m o u n tain formed a scene of beautiful a n d g r a n d beyond description a n d one worth the pencil of a p a i n t e r or t h e lyric of the poet. Finding o u r mistake, w e retraced our steps a n d getting onto the right road stopped to dinner, turned t h e horses loose to graze, after which we crossed a small stream a n d ascended a n o t h e r ridge a n d descended into a beautiful valley with fine grass a n d water. W e e n c a m p e d for the night near a trading post, several emigrants lying here in c a m p grazing their stock. M a k e 15 or 16 miles today. September 24th. — Left c a m p early this morning, our course lay through a mountainous a n d broken country over m o u n t a i n ridges a n d valleys of small extent densely covered with timber. Saw some gigantic pines from 6 to 8 feet in diameter towering aloft some 200 feet in height. Saw some cedars today of extraordinary size 5 to 6 feet in diameter, rising 150 or 175 feet high. Oaks m a d e their a p p e a r a n c e today for the first time, the largest about 18 inches in diameter. T h e mountains today a r e more heavy, being now in t h e m a i n range. O u r road became m o r e difficult owing to the great height. W i n d i n g along the sides and along the ridges down again to valley through canyons, there being no grass for a distance of 30 miles, we did not halt a t noon as usual. T h e horses became quite fatigued b u t we urged t h e m on. I n the afternoon we ascended one of t h e highest m o u n t a i n s we h a d yet been on. After gaining the top, our r o a d lay along the ridge. After reaching the highest peak we h a d one of the most g r a n d and r o m a n t i c views w e ever saw. W e h a d an extensive view u p o n all sides. T o the west as far as the eye could reach rose ridge after ridge until m o u n t a i n a n d sky blended together in the distance. W e almost fancied we could see the coast range beyond Sacramento Valley, m a k i n g one of the grandest scenes my eyes ever rested upon. T h e whole country as far as we could see was densely timbered with gigantic pines, cedars, etc., their rich green foliage contrasted finely with the naked a n d b a r r e n region of the country we h a d passed over. Descended the m o u n t a i n , again the road steep a n d rocky, into a small valley or canyon crossing a fine stream of water, said to be the south b r a n c h of the American, where we found a trading post a n d ascertained where we could find grass. D u r i n g the afternoon the weather was cloudy a n d towards evening it commenced raining quite hard. Pushed on until dark a n d coming to a large stream of w a t e r it being deep and rocky. It getting dark we concluded to t u r n back a short distance a n d camp, groped our way t h r o u g h the rain a n d darkness. W e unloaded our packs u n d e r a large pine


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turning o u r horses loose to look out for themselves whilst we commenced operations for kindling a fire. T h e rain falling rapidly and everything being wet, we found it difficult. W e used u p all our matches without succeeding. We used powder, wetting some powder and saturating a rag, putting some in the g u n without wadding, fire the contents into the rag which took fire and feeding it with dry bark we succeeded in making a fire, having no tent or shelter from the rain except w h a t little the trees afforded. 22 T h e r e being plenty of wood at h a n d , we piled on large quantities, the rain still pouring down on us while one side was drying the other was getting wet, thus we kept alternately shifting a n d changing during the whole night, being wet and hungry having eaten nothing since breakfast. W e commenced getting supper making some bread and frying some meal, which we heartily enjoyed, the rain still pitting [illegible]. T h e rain continued without intermission all night and becoming completely exhausted, we wrapped our blankets around us a n d set down u p o n our packs against the tree, indulged ourselves in nodding and getting a n occasional snatch of sleep a n d awake wet a n d chilly. T h u s we passed the night a n d as far as I a m concerned it was one of the most disagreeable nights I ever spent. At length day dawned but still the rain continued which, notwithstanding was a great relief. W e n t to the river and found it past fording. Moved, camped about 1 mile to good grass and remained for the day of September 25th. About the middle of the forenoon the rains ceased and it cleared u p affording us an opportunity of drying our clothes and bedding. M a d e 30 miles today. (September 24th) September 26th. — After a comfortable nights rest we started again on our journey after breakfast, the horses getting pretty good feed during the day a n d night. This morning the creek h a d fallen so that we were able to ford and continued our journey. After going a few miles, one of our horses showed signs of failing. It being some 16 miles to grass, we urged her along. Passed several trading posts a n d ranches today along the road. K e p t on till noon, our horse failing rapidly, we took off our packs and having some grass along with us, we fed it out to the horse resting ourselves in the meantime. Resumed our journey again. I t was with the greatest difficult we could get our horse along. We lightened u p her load, carrying some things ourselves a n d walking slowly allowing her to rest frequently. T h u s we kept on until late in the afternoon when our horse stopped in the road refusing to proceed, b u t we urged her on using every means in our power to get her along to grass and water about two miles distant. Still lightening her load, we succeeded in getting her into c a m p where we found pretty good grass and turned them loose to graze, selecting a good place well sheltered by trees for our bed and rolling together a large heap of pine logs, we h a d a comfortable fire. After cooking our supper we turned in for the night u n d e r the branches of a wide spread pine, soon forgetting the fatigues of the day. M a d e about 16 miles today. September 27th. — Arose early this morning, having enjoyed a good nights rest. After breakfast prepared for our journey and finding our horses unable to proceed, we very reluctantly left her, leaving her, however, near grass and water where she would eventually recruit if left alone. 22

Apparently they soaked the rags in kerosene.


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Having now but one horse left, we were compelled to shoulder our packs, the only resource left us. After getting things arranged, started under the new arrangement which, though not a pleasant one, we put up with the best at all possible. Having but about 22 miles to make to get into Georgetown which under present circumstances, we expect will be the end of our journey, met a large number of miners the last two days going out into locations. The reports are rather unfavorable at present, but being new comers ourselves, we cannot place much credit in the different stories told us. We are resolved to see for ourselves. Stopped awhile to noon and then proceeded on. In the afternoon we had a splendid view of the Sacramento Valley away to the north and south with the coast range of mountains to the west. This was a welcome sight to us, weary and worn as we were from the long and tedious journey over deserts and dreary wastes. We felt encouraged at the near termination of our journey. Reaching a trading post towards evening, we encamped for the night, there being no grass here, we cut down some small oaks for our horses to browse upon, cooking our scanty meal. Made preparations for the night. Made about 15 miles today. September 28th. — Awoke this morning after a refreshing nights rest, after the fatigues of the day. Made preparations for our journey at once, being entirely out of provisions and money, felt rather squamish about the stomach but there was no use for repining at our lot, so shouldering our packs we made a bold push forward having 10 or 12 miles to make, our greatest solicitude being for our poor jaded yet faithful horse who had rendered us such essential service, there being no grass whatever along the way. The only thing to be had was barley which under present circumstances we were unable to procure at least until we reached Georgetown. Continued on our weary way, the road descending rapidly towards the valley which was in sight occasionally, the spot or foot hills of the Sierra Nevada Mountains, which now lay to the east of us, lifting their snowy heads to the clouds so that, notwithstanding our present situation which was an unpleasant one but far better than has fallen to the lot of many others, we still had reason to congratulate ourselves upon our good fortune in having escaped the many dangers consequent upon so hazardous a journey through burning sands and desert wastes, in many places entirely destitute of grass or water with the bald and desolate mountains lifting their gloomy heads in everlasting silence, towards the sky very naturally tended to depress the spirits as we plodded our weary way, choked with thirst and suffocated with dust. Our journey had been a tedious one, many thousands who started full of hope and bright anticipation of the future found an untimely grave in a strange land among strangers and beyond the search of kind friends and relatives. A father perhaps sinking in the cold embrace of death leaving behind a helpless and dependent family of children to be cast upon the cold charity of the world; or the young man in the prime of life and full of bright anticipation, ambitious to regain a name in the world has been suddenly cut down by the ruthless hand of death, who in no respect of persons, age, or sex, or conditions of life. The road is a vast channel being literally lined for hundreds of miles with not only the bodies of men, but of vast multitudes of horses, oxen, and mules, with innumerable wrecks of wagons, baggage, clothing, etc., property to the amount of


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hundreds of thousands of dollars totally lost to the use of m a n , a n immense sacrifice to avarice a n d the love of gold. Scenes calculated to m a k e the eager m u l t i t u d e pause a n d think a n d to reflect that there are other subjects which should engage their attention besides the mere getting of gold, b u t so it is with m a n who rushes heedlessly along in the uncertain race, risk, life, limb a n d health in the pursuit of that which can give no solid or real enjoyment. About noon we arrived in Georgetown, a new place, a depot for the mining district around. Selected a place for c a m p a n d went a r o u n d to look at the operations of the mines, there being quite a n u m b e r adjacent to the town along the ravines a n d gullies. September 29th. — H a v i n g sold our remaining horse a n d buying a n d cooking some provisions preparatory to the completion of our journey to Sacramento City. Although in the mining district, o u r inclinations led us to the city being the point for which wc started a n d the prospect of meeting with friends a n d above all to hear from the dear relatives a n d kind friends, not having heard a word from them for so long a n d dreary a period. H a v i n g heard since getting into the settlements that the dreaded Cholera had again swept over the country, carrying multitudes to their graves, our minds were filled with anxious solicitude concerning those w h o m we h a d left behind, w h o m perhaps we were never to meet again in the world. O u r feelings m a y be imagined, but cannot be described. H a v i n g things in readiness, about noon we shouldered our blankets, some clothes and provisions. We started on our journey in the meantime, leaving some of our baggage in a store which we could not take with us, intending to come or send for it in a few days. T o w a r d s evening passed through a pleasant little village or mining town called Greenwood Valley a n d stopped for the night where we very unexpectedly fell in with some old acquaintances from Cincinnati — a neighbor, Joseph Cassell, M . H . Offutt, and a M r . Abrams of Cincinnati; and a M r . Jason L u d l o w of Lawrenceburg, I n d i a n a , with w h o m I became acquainted with some 10 or 11 years since in Mississippi a n d m a d e himself beknown to me. This was cheering to find old friends on the distant rearions a n d inspired us with new.energy a n d hope. 2 3 September 30th. — T o d a y being Sunday, we remained until noon with our friends, talking of h o m e a n d past occurrences, when we again set out on our journey. Continued on till dark a n d stopped for the night near a town or trading post along the road which is lined with them down to the city.

his concludes the Taylor journal. They did not "strike it rich." AcT, cording to John Colville Taylor, the grandson of Charles Wesley Taylor, they found very little gold, only enough to pay their passage back by boat.24 And thus the Taylors returned to Cincinnati with a wealth of experience but no gold. 23 Taylor uses a confusing tense here. Apparently he had m a d e the acqviaintance of Ludlow some years earlier. 24 Letter from J o h n Colville Taylor to the editor, April 5, 1967.


The President's Report For The Fiscal Year 1969-1970 B Y M I L T O N C. A B R A M S

[ T I S A PLEASURE FOR M E to make the Annual Report for the U t a h State Historical Society for 1970. My pleasure stems from the fact that there is much of a positive nature to relate. Dr. Abrams, U t a h State University librarian, has been president of the Historical Society since 1969.


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The Utah State Historical Society has been active during the past twelve months. It has logged a number of solid achievements. Its future appears bright. Its relationship with the Department of Development Services has been amenable. The Board has functioned as the effective policymaking group. Executive Director Milton L. Weilenmann, of the Department of Development Services, has shown a keen sense for the problems and aspirations of state history and has worked well with the Society on numerous occasions. Technically, the relationship in this context is one involving the Division of State History, a part of the Department of Development Services. But, with a growing membership, the Utah State Historical Society is still very much a part of the scene as it has been since 1897. The staff of the Society is dedicated and loyal. Enlarged by the addition of three capable people during the past year it now totals sixteen full-time and four part-time employees. Fiscal Report: The year has been one of a tight budget. Furthermore, it has been one of adjustment. This stems in part from the socalled Arthur Young Plan, an across-the-board salary increase to state employees, which has complicated our planning and reduced revenues available for expenditures other than personnel. Further complicating our finances was the two per cent cut for the 1970-71 budget invoked by Governor Calvin L. Rampton early in July of this year. Coupled with a tight legislative year, it has all made for a limited program. However, when one compares it with the past, this year's total operating budget is favorable as appears in the following: Actual for

Estimated for

1966-67 1967-68 1968-69 1969-70 1970-71

$115,350 125,599 139,386 158,887 186,700

These figures reveal a constant, though certainly not spectacular, growth, and the curtailing influence of inflation notwithstanding, this year's budget permits certain badly needed additional services and programs. It should be pointed out that some $22,000 of the 1970-71 budget were derived from the National Endowment for the Humanities and have no counterpart in the budgets for earlier years. Without these federal monies, the 1970-71 budget represents an increase over the previous year of little more than three per cent. But this discouraging figure does not reveal the entire picture. Forgetting the strictures wished upon us by fiscal timing for the moment, we may point to the fact that, during the


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months since the last annual report, total revenues to the Society have been: Appropriations from the general funds of the state Revenues from other sources:

..$130,000

A p p r o x i m a t e sales (Quarterlies, memberships, etc.)

28,000

Federal monies: Historic Sites Survey National E n d o w m e n t for the H u m a n i t i e s G r a n t Gifts

10,000 28,000 13,100

Total

..$209,100

A quick analysis indicates that some forty per cent of the total funds available for operation have come from sources other than the general funds of the state — about twenty per cent from membership, sale of Quarterlies, and gifts; and about twenty per cent from federal sources. There can be no question about the fundamental importance to the operation of the State Historical Society of state revenues, but, obviously, monies from external sources are important and, hopefully, will continue. Publications: For more than four decades the Utah State Historical Society has been involved in a program of publications. During that period the Utah Historical Quarterly has provided accurate and important data dealing with Utah's past. The Quarterly has been well received and highly regarded. The proud tradition continues. Authors of national renown are among the Quarterly contributors. Numerous manuscripts continue to come in. These vary widely in character and in content and in historic and literary value. Taken as a whole, however, they provide a resource that makes the future promising for the Quarterly. There are several highlights in the publication achievements of the past year to which we may point. The Winter issue of 1970 was devoted to women in Utah history. To Dr. Leonard J. Arrington, who served as guest editor, goes much of the credit for this fine issue. Hopefully, the Quarterly and others interested in Utah history, will build upon this base and elaborate further on the role of women in our past. Mrs. Helen Z. Papanikolas contributed a most excellent history of the Greeks in Utah for the second issue of 1970. Mr. Nick Papanikolas, of Cannon-Papanikolas, made it possible to increase the number of copies printed of this special issue by a generous gift to the Society. Demand has been high and, although some 2,500 extra copies were printed, the edition is practically sold out.


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Plans have been made for two special issues in 1971. The Spring issue will be devoted to Great Basin and Colorado Plateau Indians and will be produced under the guest editorship of Dr. C. Gregory Crampton, director of the Duke Indian Oral History Program at the University of Utah. Dr. Thomas G. Alexander, professor of history at Brigham Young University, will serve as guest editor for a special issue dealing with reclamation and environmental problems. A generous gift from Mr. and Mrs. Roland Woolley will make possible the publication of a biography of Governor William Spry. No topic seems more within the province of the Society. Photographs of the thirty-five governors of Utah hang in the rotunda of the Mansion. It is proper that this is so but little is known of some, particularly those of the territorial period and because of it they seem almost forelorn. A biography of one territorial governor, James Duane Doty, has been written by Mrs. Alice Smith of the Wisconsin Historical Society. Brigham Young, of course, has been the object of much attention but not specifically in his role as governor. The Spry biography begins to push back the obscurity with which altogether too many of our governors have been shrouded. Hopefully, it will suggest others. Plans are well afoot to join with two University of Utah institutions, the University Press and the Center for Studies of the American West, to issue a number of monographs under joint imprint. This undertaking will be funded from gifts to the Society and from institutional funds available to the University groups. Obviously, the stepped-up activity in the realm of publications has placed much pressure upon the publication staff at the Society. The Associate Editor Margery Ward has grown with the demands of the job and much of the director's time has been required. Arrangements have been made for a part-time editorial secretary to assist in this important branch of activity. Library: The Society's collection and preservation of Utah's history was initiated in the 1930's, principally, through donations. While gifts have continued to be the mainstay of the Society's acquisitions, books in limited numbers have been purchased since the 1940's. Through the generosity of patrons and careful management, our Utah collection has become one of the nation's most important — allowing the library to provide a signal service to scholars and citizens of our state. During the past year, one full-time person, Larry Prina, has been added to the library staff. Mrs. Delia Dye, our reference librarian, has


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Quarterly

left, joining the University of U t a h Library. T h e library holdings include the following: 14,450 12,200 10,000 831 19,000 1,500 190

Books Pamphlets Periodical volumes (estimated) Microfilm rolls Photographs Maps (estimated) Manuscripts

Service, of course, is the main object of the library. During the past year, our librarians have processed 1,673 research visits; 1,274 mail requests; 1,060 phone requests; and have provided many photo copies, microfilms, and photographs to patrons. T h e year has seen a large number of gifts, including such important diaries as those of Volney King and Levi Savage, Jr., come to the Historical Society. An especially fruitful relationship has developed between George S. T a n n e r and the library. Mr. T a n n e r has made an extensive search for manuscripts dealing with the southward movement of the Mormon church. With a sound knowledge of history and wide contacts, he has been successful in locating many heretofore obscure diaries. These, or copies of them, have been given to the Society. Volunteer workers continue to make substantial contributions to the library. Notable among these are Dr. and Mrs. William W. Newby who have worked in manuscripts and in the Society's m a p collection. We are deeply grateful to this distinguished couple and all other volunteers for their valuable contributions. Preservation: T h e Survey of Historic Sites has been a successful aspect of the Historical Society since August of 1969. At that time Melvin T. Smith was appointed preservation officer. Shortly thereafter Governor Calvin L. R a m p t o n established a State Register of Historic Sites and in the fall of 1969 appointed a Committee on Historic and Cultural Sites. Chosen for their knowledge of history, archaeology, and architecture, this distinguished group consists of: Dr. Dello G. Dayton, Dr. Eldon Dorman, Mr. Jack Goodman, Dr. Jesse D. Jennings, Mr. Theron Luke, Mr. Fred L. M a r k h a m , Dr. David E. Miller, Mr. James D. Moyle, Dr. Charles S. Peterson, Mrs. Naomi Woolley, and myself as chairman. T h e Historic Sites Committee has been active, meeting monthly. Their efforts, together with those of the staff, have resulted in the establishment of a sound preservation program for Utah. Some thirty sites


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355

from twelve counties, have been nominated to the National Register and the following has been placed upon it: Thomas Kearns Mansion (the home of the Historical Society), the Beehive House (L. D. S. Church), the Salt Lake City & County Building, Fort Douglas, and the Isaac Chase Mill. Some eighty-five sites from twenty-one counties have been placed on the State Register of Historic Sites. Salt Lake County, with twentyone sites on the State Register, leads the counties, followed by Washington County which now registers ten. It is anticipated that other sites will soon be added with a total of several hundred eventually taking their place on the National Register, and possibly several thousands upon the State Register. The surveying process proceeds. The Historical Society staff is limited but has sought and received volunteer help from across the state. Sites and information have been submitted by private citizens as well as state, county, and municipal officials. An inventory that is more or less complete will be established within the next year and the ongoing process of evaluation will enable the preservation office to establish priorities in the coming years. A major accomplishment of the past year has been the development of a tentative plan for preservation. Produced by the preservation staff by and with the advice and help of the Committee on Historic Sites, this plan represents Utah's first effort to order and regulate the process of preservation. In the past many of the buildings and sites that constitute our historic patrimony were destroyed in the name of progress with little or no thought of their cultural value. It is hoped that forethought and planning will now enable us to preserve the most important sites and places as an important element of our heritage. In addition to regulating preservation, the preservation plan outlines anticipated expenditures and makes the following requests for federal matching monies: 1971 1972 1973

$270,000 $497,500 $750,000

The 1971 matching request has been based on monies now actually being expended upon preservation activities within the state. The 1972 and 1973 requests presume additional state expenditures for preservation, bringing the instate total to figures that will match those requested. Federal monies for these undertakings will be available under the National Preservation Act of 1966.


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An important adjunct of the Historic Sites Survey is the program of certifying sites. The preservation staff, with the concurrence of the Committee on Historic Sites has developed certificates signifying that sites have been placed upon the State and National Registers. Many of these have been presented during the course of the year and are now displayed with pride by property owners. Recognizing that many lovely and revered older homes cannot be designated to the State or the National Register, the Committee has, also, established a Centennial Home Register. This arrangement permits beautiful and important homes that are not of sufficient historical significance to be placed upon the State Register to receive an award in keeping with their dignity and with the pride taken in them by their owners. This program is calculated to encourage heritage-minded people in their efforts to adjust the housing characteristics of an earlier age to the needs of family life today. It has, also, become apparent that the official survey for historic sites implies a marking program. An official plaque has been designed indicating that a site has been placed upon either the National or the State Register. It will be available for those institutions and parties who care to take advantage of it. During the course of the past year, preservation has attracted much favorable attention. It has, also, become apparent that it is fraught with problems. It is costly. It is increasingly apparent that the need is not to preserve in moth balls, but to extend the utility of historic buildings and sites. This is a matter of attitudes and values as much as it is a matter of economics. A culture that rejects the old and reaches wildly on to the new forfeits the bond with the past that the old provides. In this situation progress threatens to engulf us. This is dramatically apparent in the current concern over environment. Part of this broader context is the question of historic preservation. A major objective of the state's preservation program is to call the attention of Utahns to the cost of untrammeled and unplanned destruction of the physical remnants of the past, and, hopefully, to salvage a sufficient remnant to present a three-dimensional picture to this and to upcoming generations. We may point with pride to a number of outstanding preservation achievements during the past year: the Brigham Young Farm Home of the Latter-day Saints Church; the Corinne chapel of the Methodist church; the West Home in Pleasant Grove. There are others but these suffice and indicate a growing awareness of preservation.


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357

Luncheon guests at the Society's Eighteenth Annual Meeting listen to Judge Fred W. Keller reminisce about his experiences as a lawman in the San Juan country.

New Programs'. A number of exciting new programs have developed since my last report. Important among these is a contractual arrangement between the Society and the Utah State Parks and Recreation Commission. For some time the Parks Commission has planned a Pioneer Village-Mormon Trail Complex which will begin at Henefer and follow the Mormon Trail to "This is the Place" Monument where a recreated pioneer village will be the culminating attraction. Pursuant to this, an advisory committee was established during the fall of 1969. After meeting with top consultants in the field, the advisory committee, along with the State Parks Commission, determined to proceed with planning for the project. In July an agreement was drawn under the terms of which the Historical Society will provide a detailed historical study of both the Mormon Trail and the village upon which the future direction of the project will turn. Mrs. Margaret Lester, Kent Powell, and Charles Peterson have been assigned to the project. It is proceeding well and initial recommendations have been made. Dr. Howard R. Lamar, chairman of the Department of History at Yale University, presented the evening address at the meeting of the Society held October 31,1970.


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A second important new program is a Pilot Project funded by the National Endowment for the Humanities. Carried on in conjunction with the American Association for State and Local History, this undertaking is to promote measures to stimulate historical activities. William Alderson of the American Association for State and Local History has worked closely with the Society in initiating this program. We have been fortunate in acquiring the services of Glen M. Leonard, a Ph.D. from the University of Utah in 1970, to head the project. He is now well into the planning stages. He will work with local chapters to upgrade and broaden their activities; produce filmstrips and museum kits for use in the public schools and civic and club groups interested in history; and will encourage the development of displays of local history in banks, businesses, and elsewhere in various localities. These two major projects, along with a variety of smaller undertakings, have fully engaged the time of the Society's staff and have filled the office space of the Mansion to capacity. They are important and involve us in expanded historical activities. Awards: It has been a year of solid achievement. The Utah State Historical Society has cooperated with the American Association for State and Local History in making the Association's awards to deserving people and institutions. Charles Peterson, Dello Dayton, and I have served as a screening committee in making recommendations to the AASLH. The American Association for State and Local History Award of Merit — its most important and prestigious award — was given to Juanita Brooks for her long and brilliant service to Utah history. No one is more justly deserving. In 1930 when work relief projects were inaugurated, she served as an area supervisor for the Federal Emergency Relief Administration and later for the Historic Records Survey. Her work in preserving and transcribing pioneer diaries in this period is well known. She has won distinction as a writer and interpreter of Utah's history and is the author of several books on state and local history as well as numerous articles and reviews. Mr. and Mrs. Richard Nibley of Ephraim, Utah, were awarded the American Association for State and Local History Certificate of Commendation for their enthusiastic and effective preservation efforts. Specifically they have restored the Canute Peterson home at Ephraim and assumed a position of leadership in central Utah's preservation efforts. Dean Bradshaw of the Division of Instructional Media of the Utah State Department of Public Instruction was awarded a Certificate of


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359

Recipients of the Utah State Historical Society's awards for 1970. LEFT Left to right: Dr. Jesse D. Jennings (Fellow), Mrs. Helen Z. Papanikolas (Morris S. Rosenblatt Award), and Dr. Everett L. Cooley (Honorary Life Membership). BELOW Left to right: Mrs. Ruth Witt (J. Grant Iverson Service Award), Mr. and Mrs. G. Eugene England who accepted the award for their son Dr. Eugene England (Service Award), Mrs. Delia McClellan (Teacher Award), Mrs. Pearl Jacobson (Service Award), and Mr. George S. Tanner (Service Award).


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Commendation for his educational film, "They Dared the Unknown," a documentary on John Wesley Powell and his exploration of the Colorado River. Finally, the American Association for State and Local History awarded a Certificate of Commendation to the Union Pacific Railroad for its series of radio spot commercials based on history used in Utah during the Golden Spike Centennial last year. This series represented a fine example of the use of history in advertisement. In addition to the American Association for State and Local History awards, the Historical Society can point with pride to its own awards. This year's Student Awards were received by Richard A. Firmage (University of U t a h ) , Elaine Johnson (Westminster College), Diane Mower (Weber State College), Carma Lois Wadley (Utah State University), and John Woodland Welch (Brigham Young University). Service Awards were given to Mr. George S. Tanner, Dr. and Mrs. William W. Newby, Dr. Eugene England, and Mrs. Pearl Jacobson. In addition Mrs. Ruth Witt was the recipient of the special J. Grant Iverson Service Award. Mrs. Delia McClellan, elementary supervisor of Nebo District, received the Society's Teacher Award for her leadership in the development of a district guide in Utah history and her efforts to improve the teaching of Utah history in her district. Mrs. Helen Z. Papanikolas received the Morris S. Rosenblatt Award for her history of the Greeks in Utah, Toil and Rage in a New Land: The Greek Immigrants in Utah, which was selected as the outstanding contribution to appear in the Utah Historical Quarterly in the past year. Honored as a Fellow of the Society was Dr. Jesse D. Jennings. His nomination to this honor came for his contribution in the field of archeology. Dr. Everett L. Cooley received the Honorary Life Membership for his untiring and devoted efforts on behalf of Utah history. With this account of the past year's accomplishment, I close on an optimistic note. The Society has grown over the years and the spirit of growth exhibited this past year indicates that it will continue to enlarge upon its obligation to serve the citizens of Utah.


REVIEWS AND PUBLICATIONS The Lion of the Lord: A Biography of Brigham Young. By STANLEY P. H I R S H S O N . (New York: Alfred A. Knopf, 1969. x x + 3 9 1 + x x x v i p p . $8.95) An interesting question is whether a n "outsider" is ever going to be able to write an understanding historical or biographical work relating to t h e M o r mons. If the job can be done, it has not, to date. By "outsider," I m e a n one who has not lived a m o n g t h e M o r m o n s for a sufficient length of time to understand them on both t h e intellectual a n d t h e emotional level; a n d in these days it is to be doubted that a n "outsider" is likely to have enough incentive to want to write such a book, except as Joseph Smith a n d Brigham Y o u n g provide a quarry for a scholarly chase. I have n o t read M r . Hirshson's biography of t h a t rather ambiguous character, Grenville M . Dodge, b u t it does not a p p e a r t h a t writing u p Dodge's life prepared h i m any more successfully to deal with Brigham Y o u n g t h a n M . R. Werner's literary involvement with P. T . B a r n u m prepared him to write the last previous biography of Young, written outside t h e M o r m o n culture. I n 1925 Werner substituted for understanding an attitude — amused a n d ironic d e tachment. M r . Hirshson has substituted . . . w h a t ? I t might be difficult to say. T h e present work offers us a superficial account of Brigham Young's life down to 1844, followed by a series of chapters roughly chronological, b u t dominated by a topical arrangement. However determined M r . Hirshson may

have been to look a t Y o u n g steadily and whole, n o t for one minute, as h e says, allowing himself to forget the esteem in which t h e M o r m o n leader is still held, his external and u n c o m p r e h e n d i n g point of view reflects a singular lack of feeling for the dynamics either of Brigham Young's life o r of Mormonism. T h e flow of time has been of p a r a m o u n t importance in t h e M o r m o n experience; there has never been a day when Mormonism has attained a state of finality about anything — it has always been, a n d continues today, in a state of becoming. So also with its principal personalities. Brigham Y o u n g was n o t t h e same m a n in 1844 t h a t h e was in 1832; neither was h e t h e same m a n in 1877 that h e was in 1857. If a first-rate biography of him is ever written, it will have to b e narrative in character, I think, biography in t h e classic mold, with a n exquisite sense of how a m a n changes in t h e grip of time a n d circumstance. T h e good things t h a t m a y be said about M r . Hirshson's book are p a r t and parcel with the b a d ones. H e exhibited considerable industry in exploiting t h e sources on Mormonism accessible in the libraries of t h e East Coast, including some only newly available to scholars, like t h e Strang Papers a t Yale. H e plainly shirked work in U t a h libraries, however, a n d m u c h of w h a t is lacking in t h e h u m a n dimension of his book could have been come by only by exploiting the U t a h sources. ( M r . Hirshson says h e was denied access to t h e L.D.S. C h u r c h Historian's Office, b u t


Utah Historical Quarterly

362 plainly he did no serious labor elsewhere in U t a h . ) W h a t he ended u p with was a sophisticated kind of scissors-andpaste job, his text enlivened with the same kind of juicy quotations which served W e r n e r so well a generation ago. W e must go on waiting for a biographer who will address himself to t h e fundam e n t a l question: W h a t kind of person was Brigham Young, really? This is at once a very simple a n d a very complex question, and hopefully someone, sometime, will get at the heart of it. D A L E L.

MORGAN

Bancroft

Library

Mormonism's Negro Policy: Social and Historical Origins. By S T E P H E N G. TAGGART. (Salt Lake City: University of U t a h Press, 1970. x i i i + 82 p p . $4.00) Perhaps the only redeeming quality of T a g g a r t ' s book is his essential theme t h a t "Mormonism's Negro policy had its origins in social a n d historical circumstances rather t h a n in revelation." T h a t m u c h can be accepted a n d has been said before by others. T a g g a r t ' s subordinate point, however, t h a t the policy "grew out of the social stress engendered w h e n the church found itself in a situation where it could not be abolitionist a n d at the same time obtain a n d build u p the land of Zion" is highly questionable. R a t h e r there is every reason to suspect t h a t M o r m o n s were proslavery initially a n d t h a t slavery was compatible with their attitudes toward Negro potential. I n his search for sound evidence, the reader m a y be willing to overlook T a g gart's somewhat cumbersome style. But deep into the short volume, disappointm e n t becomes p e r m a n e n t . T h e author omits numerous valuable source m a terials a n d relies too heavily on secondary sources. F o r instance, when tracing origins of priesthood denial to an 1879

meeting at A b r a h a m Smoot's home, T a g g a r t quotes William E. Berrett's apologetic work, The Church and the Negroid People, rather t h a n the primary source — L. J o h n Nuttall's diary. Further, in outlining Brigham Young's views on the Negro, T a g g a r t resorts to Joseph Fielding Smith's Way to Perfection instead of Young's countless speeches a n d personal papers, the most informative being his 1852 speech to the U t a h legislature (manuscript in church archives). I n treating the m o d e r n scene, T a g g a r t curiously focuses o n the relev a n t Sterling M c M u r r i n account of a conversation with David O . M c K a y concerning Negroes, a n d yet makes no reference to McKay's personal letter of 1947. While McKay's letter may be less startling, it is nevertheless a primary source, a n d offers fresh insight into the view of the m o d e r n church. Easily the most disturbing weakness is the credibility T a g g a r t places on the Smoot meeting. Zebedee Coltrin recalled to J o h n Taylor that Joseph Smith h a d told him personally in 1834 that Negroes were ineligible to t h e priesthood; hence, Elijah Abel was dropped from the q u o r u m when his lineage was discovered. T a g g a r t bemoans the absence of corroborative evidence, yet still "assumes its report to be generally correct," even though Coltrin related the incidents forty-five years after they occurred a n d while h e was in advanced years. If Smith m a d e such a stand, why did he not declare it publicly to the church? Moreover, if Abel really was " d r o p p e d from the q u o r u m , " at the wish of Joseph Smith in the 1840's, why did he represent the q u o r u m on a mission in 1883, as church records attest? Of added significance is the fact that J o h n Taylor was the president of the church who called Abel on his mission. U n accountably, T a g g a r t cryptically dismisses these crucial items as "of little consequence for the analysis." T a g g a r t then suggests t h a t Joseph Smith was "probably predisposed" to


Reviews and Publications accept the curse of C a i n : " H e had been introduced to it as a youth when he read in his geography book that all m e n are descended from the T h r e e sons of N o a h . " T h e a u t h o r claims a book called Sacred Geography, currently in the possession of the Reorganites, was owned by Smith. Even if ownership was verified, however, it would not substantiate the more difficult premise — that he read it, nor that it formed the basis for his attitude toward blacks. Failure to recognize and analyze Smith's a n d Young's ambivalence on the Negro looms as still another flaw in the book. Y o u n g is virtually ignored, a n d yet he was more responsible than Smith for enunciating the early Morm o n philosophy — that slavery was a blessing to the Negro, providing the owner treated him with kindness. Predictably, T a g g a r t does not discern the implicit connection between slavery a n d the M o r m o n belief t h a t Negroes "must serve." T h o u g h he constantly hammers at "Southern fundamentalism," his treatment remains i n a d e q u a t e ; for instance, there is no mention of M o r m o n paternalism, the most revealing example being " A u n t " J a n e James's description of her days as Smith's servant. Finally, T a g g a r t asserts that the p u b lication of the Book of A b r a h a m in 1842 provided a "theological justification" for withholding the priesthood from the Negro, yet he supplies no evidence that Joseph Smith nor anyone else used it for such a purpose. Since the reference in A b r a h a m is obscure, it is m u c h more reasonable to assume t h a t its use was a modern development in Mormonism. As is characteristic of the entire work, T a g g a r t makes an assumption not supported by his evidence. D E N N I S L. L Y T H G O E

Assistant Professor of History Massachusetts State College at Bridgewater

363 The Historical World of Frederick Jackson Turner, With Selections From His Correspondence. Narrative by W I L BUR R.

JACOBS.

(New

Haven

and

L o n d o n : Yale University Press, 1968. x x i i + 289 p p . $10.00) Surely no American historian would deny t h a t Frederick Jackson T u r n e r , Carl L. Becker, and Charles A. Beard should be a m o n g the first of their guild to be enshrined in some future hall of fame of famous scholars. Above all other historians their influence has extended far beyond the limited b o u n d a ries of their field in shaping social and political thought. Becker has h a d his due in a n u m b e r of excellent studies in p a r t based on his manuscripts; T u r n e r , whose correspondence has only lately been released, is now coming in for equally distinguished studies; b u t Beard, unfortunately, m a y never have the same careful appraisal because at his request his correspondence was destroyed. I t was appropriate that Wilbur R. Jacobs and Ray Billington should take the lead in reexamining T u r n e r ' s frontier thesis, the sources of the ideas entering into it, and w h a t remains of its validity today after a long series of devastating attacks upon it. Jacobs intensive work on white and I n d i a n relations prior to 1776 a n d his superb editing of the Letters of Francis Parkman, a n d Billington's Westward Expansion — an equally excellent account of the opening of the West to settlement a n d of the influence of that section on national polities — prepared them admirably for the task of appraising the work of the founder of the frontier school of interpretation. The Historical World of Frederick Jackson Turner is a delightful book in which letters a n d extracts of letters of T u r n e r a n d his associates are included. Introductory explanatory detail skillfully provides the necessary background for the letters which are grouped u n d e r the following chapter headings: " T u r ner's Life and Affairs," " T u r n e r ' s E d u -


364 cational Concerns," "Social History and Politics," "Problems in Writing History," and " T h e Generous Critic." I t is in these introductory remarks and in the epilogue on "Turner's Accomplishments" that Jacobs shares with the reader his profound understanding and appreciation of Turner's role in historiography, all of which is done with w a r m sympathy, but not uncritically. T h e contrast between the "flat, lacking in variety" and "professorial" letters of T u r n e r with the beautiful prose of the Becker letters which are included is noted. Yet, what is wrong with a learned and outstanding teacher writing "professorial" letters which are always "kindly, thoughtful, warm, pleasant. . . ." Becker was a supreme stylist in his letters as well as in his finished publications and T u r n e r was founder of the frontier school. Among the many interesting attitudes brought out in the correspondence are three to which I wish to allude. T h e first, Turner's view expressed after he retired to San Marino, that "the most serious g a p " in the book collection of the Huntington Library was the "Congressional Public Docs," a point that was m a d e in 1927 and which the reviewer has m a d e on more than one occasion since. T h e second, a different concept of Horace Greeley than is presented by some biographers. T u r n e r wrote of the Tribune editor that he was "the prophet and mouthpiece of that New York-New England stream of settlers which made an intellectual section in the Old Northwest and the North East" when they were "exerting a fertilizing influence upon American thought, framing social programs, and preparing reforms" that were later to be carried out. Greeley was a giant among editors and one with a strong reformist bent. T h e part he played in advancing both political and social reforms should not be submerged by u n d u e attention to his pecadillos. Third, my graduate work was begun with Turner's last Ph.D. stu-

Utah Historical

Quarterly

dent, James B. Hedges, whose challenging support for Robert Marion La Follette in 1924 carried his class along with him. W h a t a disillusionment it was to me when later I spent a year in graduate work at Wisconsin to find the climate of opinion in the History Department at that time was either disinterest or hostility toward the state's great reformer. O n e of the most delightful passages in the T u r n e r correspondence, as here given, is a sentence in a letter to Claude H. V a n Tyne, written in support of Carl Becker for a position at the University of Michigan. "His doctoral dissertation is an illustration of a delicate conscience and a training under Osgood, fighting successfully against a literary instinct." T h e fight was not quite that successful. A slight criticism might be made of the vastly detailed bibliographical note, mostly devoted to attacks upon and support for the T u r n e r interpretation. All of this has been published so many times by Billington that it seems unnecessary in this volume. Personally, I would have preferred a few more extracts from the ten thousand items of T u r n e r correspondence and more of the editor's illuminating introductions and footnotes. P A U L W.

GATES

Professor of History Cornell University

Down The Colorado: John Wesley Powell Diary of the First Trip Through The Grand Canyon, 1869. Photographs and Epilogue by ELIOT PORTER. Foreword and Notes by D O N D. FOWLER. (New York: E. P. Dutton & Co., Inc., 1969. 168pp. $30.00) During the 1969 J o h n Wesley Powell Centennial a number of agencies and private individuals researched diaries, letters, photographs, and other material associated with Major Powell. Some excellent books and magazine articles appeared, but these served chiefly to


Reviews and Publications illuminate our picture of Powell, to broaden our understanding of his exploratory trip down the Green and Colorado rivers, or to increase our appreciation of his influential work in government science programs. Down the Colorado is an attractive volume about Major Powell (more particularly about the Grand Canyon), which also does not pretend to put forth new, original material. Indeed its main text is a reprint of Powell's famous report of his river voyage that first appeared as a series of magazine articles in 1875. Powell made minor revisions to the articles when they were printed later in 1875 as the Smithsonian Institution official report. In 1895, seven years before his death, Powell made further minor revisions and published his account under the title Canyons of the Colorado. It is this last version that is reprinted in Down the Colorado. Eliot Porter, who first gained fame from his photographs of Glen Canyon in a Sierra Club book, is the obvious chief architect of Down the Colorado. Porter's Epilogue and his forty-eight color photographs both seem to carry the same message, to wit: (1) Beautiful Glen Canyon has been ruined by Lake Powell, and (2) it is a blessing that the dam builders have been stymied in their efforts to similarly ruin Marble and Grand canyons. A competent archeologist, Don D. Fowler, has included a few footnotes to the Powell narrative and has written an introduction. Fowler's introduction is largely a narrative background of events leading to the 1875 publication of Powell's report. In his final paragraph, however, Fowler says that perhaps Powell's ghost still stalks the Glen Canyon region, gazing down upon the lake named in his honor. Fowler then asks the question, "Is he pleased?" Fowler answers his own question with an abrupt, "I think not." That Powell was a vigorous advocate of dam-buildinof wherever it was feasible

365 is a fact conveniently overlooked by both Fowler and Porter. Also ignored is the obvious impossibility of accurately projecting a man's thinking seventy years beyond his death into an entirely changed situation, which is best illustrated by the fact that Major Powell is considered a spiritual father to both the Sierra Club and the Bureau of Reclamation. Indeed would the ghost of the wise major side completely with either of his quarreling children? Eliot Porter's color photographs, although selected with a bias, are magnificently printed. No one could deny that this is a beautiful book. But since the main body of the text, Powell's report, is readily available in inexpensive editions, Down the Colorado would seem to be strictly a luxury item. W. L. R U S H O

Public Information Officer U.S. Bureau of Reclamation Salt Lake City, Utah The Dragon on the Hill: Utah's 38th Legislature: Analysis and Comment. Edited by J E D O N EMENHISER. (Salt Lake City: University of Utah Press, 1970. xiii + 221pp. $2.25) This collection of articles by twentythree contributors analyzing and appraising Utah's Thirty-eighth Legislature is, as the publishers concede in the preface, "something of a failure" when measured against the initially conceived goal of "clearing away the cobwebs of a legislative session with one small book." But in this reviewer's opinion, based upon thirty-nine years experience as a newspaper reporter covering the legislature it is something of a success when measured against the possible goal of shedding light on the anatomy of the "Dragon" and the collection of emotional and psychological stresses and strains which impels it to act as it does. The twenty-one contributors to the comment section (a major portion of


366 the volume) themselves constitute a small duplicate of the D r a g o n with m a n y of the characteristics of the one they are describing a n d evaluating. Collectively, the articles provide a n answer to the question of why a legislature does not proceed from t h e outset of a session to deal with issues in order of their importance. T h e volume as a whole makes it quite clear t h a t one m a n ' s idea of a high priority legislative item is another man's triviality; t h a t one m a n ' s special interest lobby is another m a n ' s courageous protector of the public w e a l ; t h a t one m a n ' s responsible statesmanship is another m a n ' s irresponsible idiocy. For example, one article described in entertaining detail h o w special interest lobbyists were t h w a r t e d a n d the will of the people b r o u g h t to the attention of the legislators. This same incident struck some of t h e other contributors as one of the more obnoxious lobbying examples of the session. O n e contributor observed t h a t except for a bill which died in committee, no measure to protect the interest of consumers was given even serious consideration. Yet one of the most informative articles is devoted to an account of h o w U t a h , in the Thirtyeighth Session, became the first state in the nation to enact t h e Uniform Consumer Credit Code. Some of the most enlightening contributions from members of t h e legislature are case histories of h o w i m p o r t a n t legislation has been achieved. These should be carefully read by freshmen members of the body as antidotes to the reactions of futility a n d frustration normally suffered by newcomers. Despite this reviewer's long exposure to a n d laborious study of the D r a g o n on the Hill, he found this volume to be informative, enlightening, a n d interesting. And prospective readers who have h a d lesser opportunities to observe the beast first-hand should find it even more rewarding t h a n the full-time legislative watchers. For m a x i m u m benefit it should be read in its entirety, as the

Utah Historical Quarterly articles collectively i m p o r t m u c h information which cannot be gleaned from selected contributions read in isolation. A series of such studies, such as the publishers intend to produce in the future, will e n h a n c e t h e value of all a n d could contribute a great deal to broaden public enlightenment on the n a t u r e of the D r a g p n if only those who complain most loudly about lack of information could be induced to read this a n d subsequent volumes. O. N.

MALMQUIST

Political Editor (retired) Salt Lake T r i b u n e Pumpkin Seed Point. By F R A N K W A T ERS. (Chicago: Sage Books, 1969. xiii + 175pp. $6.00) Pumpkin Seed Point by Frank Waters is a narrative of his experiences while living at the H o p i village of Oraibi in northern Arizona, gathering information to be compiled in his most unique a n d remarkable volume, The Book of the Hopi, published in 1963. By recording for the first time the complete H o p i lore the sponsoring foundation hoped to p r o m o t e understanding and peace a m o n g t h a t group a n d to preserve for posterity their past history. D u r i n g the three years in which he was engaged in this study, the author lived in a little house just u n d e r P u m p kin Seed Point (a rocky spur on Hopi T h i r d Mesa shaped like a p u m p k i n seed). His m a n y years of association with Indians of the Southwest imminently qualified M r . Waters for this difficult assignment, yet to the Hopi Traditionalists he was scorned as another foreign intruder. Overcoming this formidable barrier a n d inducing some thirty of the older most conservative Traditionalists to reveal for the very first time their sacred a n d esoteric secrets was no small accomplishment. W h e n the "Great White F a t h e r " first sent his agents to show them the "better way," the Hopi divided in groups known


367

Reviews and Publications as either "Hostile" or "Friendly" depending on their attitude to outside influence. T h e factions are now known as "Traditionalists" a n d "Progressives" a n d still hold t h e same line. As more of their young go away to school the Traditionalists dwindle in n u m b e r b u t make u p for it with increased enthusiasm. T h e "Hostiles wanted no p a r t of the ways of the White m a n , shouting, 'Go away a n d leave us alone. W e don't want you spoiling o u r children. O u r traditions have led us in the good way of life for ages. W e don't need y o u . ' ' : This mood prevails to this day. This then was the field M r . Waters h a d to plow. Without his Hopi coworker Oswald Fredericks (White Bear) a n d his white wife Naomi (Brown B e a r ) , the project would most certainly have come to naught. Yet White Bear was not accepted into any Traditional group a n d was in a way a n outsider. After attending government schools a n d graduating from Bacon College in Muskegee, Oklahoma, M r . Fredericks h a d worked with the Boy Scouts of America in N e w York and the Y M C A in Newark, N e w Jersey, and h a d twenty years of absence from the reservation to handicap him. White Bear, however, was a diplomatic guide and interpreter in seeking out a n d interviewing individual informants in eleven villages, in making trips to shrines, a n d in attending ceremonials. T h e words of the informants were taken on a little battery tape-recorder, translated into English by White Bear, typed by Brown Bear, a n d rechecked by the three for honest interpretation. A theme of mysticism, a note of intuition — of things felt rather t h a n seen — pervades the book. I t surfaces in t h e passionate determination shown by the individual to keep a n d perform his assigned p a r t of the ritual to keep the R o a d of Life open for the benefit of all mankind. T h e a u t h o r encounters the supernatural in witches and ghosts, rocks that talk if you are tuned in, a n d

in dreams. O n e of the oldest T r a d i tionalists, D a n said, "If you are honest; if this project is to be a success, you will have four dreams." T h e dreams came, certain a n d meaningful. W h e n the Evil Eye was p u t on White Bear to do him in, M r . Waters entered the contest saying, "Certainly I believe in ghosts a n d witches . . . . But I also believe that the invisible powers of the h u m a n spirit are stronger. W e all have such powers in a fashion. I do myself. N o w I'll tell you w h a t I'll do. You bring here the most powerful witch you know a n d I'll have a duel with her. W h a t do you say? As if in answer to this rash a n d boastful challenge, a beam of light flashed full u p o n us." I n his conclusion M r . Waters states that the white m a n could learn from the Hopi philosophy. T h e i r priests foretell that mankind is nearing the beginning of a new life to be heralded by the appearance of " T h e Blue Star." A new star almost two thousand years ago led m a n k i n d to a new a n d better life. Now, we substitute knowledge for faith. If we again followed O U R star, faith would lead us to a better life. With his rich a n d a b u n d a n t vocabulary his ability to m a k e graphic combinations of words, a n d his understanding heart, M r . Waters in Pumpkin Seed Point, has added a notch to his reputation as one of the finest writers about the people of the Southwest. T h e reader cannot help b u t have empathy for the author at his reluctance to leave P u m p kin Seed Point. L O U I S E L. U D A L L

Phoenix, Joe Hill.

By G I B B S M . S M I T H .

Author Arizona (Salt

Lake City: University of U t a h Press, 1969. viii + 2 8 6 p p . $7.00) At long last appears a truly objective study of Joe Hill, legendary Wobbly organizer a n d songsmith, who was executed by the State of U t a h in 1915 for


368 the murder of a grocer. Too long has this controversial figure been the plaything of the novelist, the dramatist, and the folk singer. Labor historian Philip Foner's tense study, The Case of Joe Hill (New York, 1965) was mined down in the old canard that the Mormon hierarchy and the copper bosses were the prime movers in the conviction and execution of Hill. Smith examines Hill's Swedish unbringing, his membership in the International Workers of the World, his trial and execution, and his influence on the labor movement after his death. Smith is no apologist for the "establishment," and critically emphasizes the general suspicion and hatred permeating all of the states where syndicalism played a major role in the labor strife of the period. (Chances are that Hill would have met a similar fate in the Idaho, California, or Washington of that time.) Smith divorces the legend from the reality in his exhaustive search of the materials directly bearing on his subject. He gives proper credit to Dr. Vernon Jensen for his pioneering article, "The Legend of Joe Hill," Industrial and Labor Relations Review (April, 1951), in which Dr. Jensen interviewed Dr. Frank M. McHugh, the doctor who attended Hill, and to whom Hill supposedly confessed his "crime." From a reading of Smith's account of the trial, one can accept Smith's conclusion that only Hill could solve the fateful question of his guilt or innocence, and he stoically carried the answer to his death. Hill's nai've detachment at the trial seems to confirm that he was cast in the mold of the typical Wobbly as depicted in Donald Barnes's penetrating work, "The Ideology of the Industrial Workers of the World: 19051921" (Ph.D. dissertation, Washington State University, 1962) : apolitical, a believer in direct action, and not bound by customary conventions. The author is convincing in his conclusion that "there is considerable reason to believe that Hill was denied jus-

Utah Historical Quarterly tice in the courts of Utah. . . . Hill's case was almost certainly a fluke turned out by the judicial machinery." The memory of Joe Hill lives not just in his trial, but in his songs, in which the radical messages, wedded to popular hymns and folk tunes, "still generate unity and energy on picket lines." His appeal can be appreciated from a reading of the complete anthology included within the book, which is most attractively laid out. Congratulations to both Professor Smith and the University of Utah Press for giving us the standard by which all other books on the subject will henceforth be measured. JEROME BERNSTEIN

Assistant Professor of History Weber State College

NEW BOOKS AND PUBLICATIONS A California Portfolio: The Golden State in Words and Pictures. By DAVIS DUTTON.

(LOS Angeles:

The

Automobile Club of Southern California, 1970) Devoted Empire Builders (Pioneers of St. George).

By A. K. HAFEN.

(St.

George: Published Privately, 1969) Echoes of the Sage and Cedars: A Centennial History of Oak City, Utah, 1868-1969. By MARGARET W. ROPER. (Salt Lake City: Publishers Press, 1970) The First Book of Copper. By OLIVE W. BURT. (New York: Franklin Watts, Inc., 1968) James Madison Flake: November 8, 1859-February 4, 1946. By S. EUGENE FLAKE. (Bountiful, Utah: Wasatch Press. 1970)


369

Reviews and Publications A Kid on the Comstock: Reminiscences of a Virginia City Childhood. By J O H N T A Y L O R W A L D O R F . Edited with

Introduction DOLORES

a n d C o m m e n t a r y by

BRYANT

WALDORF.

(Palo

Alto, California: American Publishing Company, 1970)

West

ARTICLES OF INTEREST American Heritage, The Magazine of History — X X I , J u n e 1970: " F o r His Was t h e K i n g d o m , a n d t h e Power, a n d t h e Glory . . . Briefly [James Jesse S t r a n g ] , " by R O B E R T P. W E E K S ,

4ff. Navajo Indians Today. By D O R O T H Y F. R O B I N S O N . Revised a n d enlarged edition. ( S a n Antonio, T e x a s : T h e Naylor Company, 1969)

American History Illustrated — V , M a y 1970: " J o h n C. F r e m o n t , " by W I L -

The Navajo Mountain Social Organization

The American West — V I I , July 1970: "Reclamation, T h e Rise a n d Fall of

Terminology.

Community: and Kinship

By M A R Y S H E P A R D S O N

and BLODWEN HAMMOND.

(Berkeley

and Los Angeles: University of California Press, 1970) The Overland Mail, 1849-1869: Promoter of Settlement, Percursor of Railroads.

Reprint. 1969) Report

By

LEROY

R.

HAFEN.

(New York:

A M S Press,

Upon the Colorado

River of the

West.

By

LIEUTENANT

JOSEPH

C.

IVES. Reprint. ( N e w York: D a C a p o Press, 1969) Thrashin'

Time:

tana Boyhood.

Memories

of a

Mon-

By M I L T O N S H A T R A W .

(Palo Alto, California: American West Publishing Company, 1970)

LIAM C. D A V I S , 4ff.

a n A m e r i c a n I d e a , " by P A U L S. T A Y -

LOR, 27ff. Arizona and the West — Twelve, Spring 1970: " M a r c u s Aurelius S m i t h : Arizona Delegate a n d Senator," by STEVEN A. FAZIO, 2 3 - 6 2 ; " T h e T r a n s -

Mississippi West in American Heritage: A n Annotated Bibliography," compiled by Catherine E. Hitchcock, 63-94 The California Historical Society Quarterly— X L I X , J u n e 1970: "Wells Fargo Staging over the Sierra," by W. T U R R E N T I N E J A C K S O N , 9 9 - 1 3 3

The Carpenter: Reflections of Mormon Life — I, Spring 1970: "Conditions Prior to Missouri E x o d u s : A Letter by Eliza R . Snow," introduction by C A R O L Y. W I L L I A M S , 4 1 - 5 0

Utah Coal: Market nomic

Impact.

Potential

and Eco-

By F R A N K C. H A C K -

M A N , CRAIG BIGLER, a n d D O U G L A S C.

W. K I R K . (Salt Lake City: Bureau of Economic a n d Business Research, 1968)

The Denver Westerners Monthly Roundup — X X V I , J u n e 1970: "Autobiography by Charles Russell," provided by FRED M A Z Z U L L A , 2 6 - 2 8

Desert — 33, July 1970: 'Hovenweep," Westward with Fremont: The Story of Solomon Carvalho. By S O P H I E G R E E N S P A N . (Philadelphia: Jewish Publication Society, 1969)

by E L I Z A B E T H C A M P B E L L , 2 6 - 2 9

Dialogue: Thought—

A Journal of Mormon I V , Winter 1969: "Wil-


Utah Historical Quarterly

370 lard Y o u n g : T h e Prophet's Son at

R i m : Grand Canyon National Park,"

West Point," by LEONARD J. ARRING-

by

TON, 37-46

"Capital Reef Extended Monument,"

JAMES

FAIN,

4 - 7 — July

by D O N A L D S. F O L L O W S ,

ElPalacio — 76, N u m b e r 3 : "Disease and D e a t h A m o n g the Anasazi, some notes on southwestern paleoepidemiology," by S T E P H E N J. K U N I T Z ,

17-

21

1970:

4-9

Nevada Historical Society Quarterly — X I I I , Spring 1970: " T h e Yager Journals: Diary of a Journey Across the Plains [Part One]," by [JAMES P R E S S LEY YAGER], 5 - 1 9 ; " T h e Amer-

Idaho Yesterdays: The Quarterly Journal of the Idaho Historical Society — 14, Spring 1970: " ' T h e Fascinating Pleasures of the Far-Famed Spokane House' [Hudson's Bay Company," by ALBERT H . C U L V E R W E L L , 3 - 7 ;

ican Colonial System in Nevada [Territory]," by K E N T D . R I C H A R D S , 2 9 -

38—Summer 1970: " T h e Yager Journals: Diary of a Journey Across the Plains [Part I I ] , " 18-39

"The

Adventures of Alexander Ross in the Snake Country," 8-15

New Mexico Historical Review—XLV, April 1970: "Fort Sumner: A Study in Origins," by F R A N K M C N I T T , 1 0 1 -

The Improvement Era—73, M a y 1970: "Early M o r m o n Artist Proclaimed 'Art Discovery of 1970' [Carl Christian Anton Christensen]," by DAVID W. EVANS, 18ff.—June 1970: "Zion's Ten

Acres," by CARTER E .

GRANT,

16-19 — J u l y 1970: " M o r m o n Colonization in the F a r West," by D R . T . EDGAR L Y O N ,

10-14;

"Nauvoo:

A

Progress Report," by J A Y M . TODD, 20ff.; "Ricks: ' T h e College on the Hill,' " by D E N T O N

Y. B R E W E R T O N ,

66-67

17 Our Public Lands — 20, Spring 1970: "Mining a n Unusual Mineral [Gilsonite]," by GERALD A. H U F F ,

The Pacific Historian — 14, Spring 1970: "Leland Stanford, Midwife of t h e Movies," by N O R M A N

E. T U T O -

ROW, 85-96 Utah Architect — 5 1 , Spring/Summer 1970: " T h e Past for the Future," by GARY D. F O R B U S H ,

The Journal of Arizona History—10, Spring 1969: " T u b a City, M o r m o n Settlement," by B. IRA JUDD, 37-42

18-19

Utah Economic and Business Review — 30, M a y 1970: "Findings of the U t a h Local Government Modernization Study," by L E R O Y F . H A R L O W ,

Los Angeles Westerners Corral, The Branding Iron — N u m b e r 96, M a r c h 1970: "A Tale of Stoddard Wells a n d Beyond [Stoddard House, Milford, Utah],"

by

R.

JACKSON

STODDARD,

12-14 National Parks & Conservation Magazine: The Environmental Journal — 44, M a y 1970: "Moods of the North

18-20

1-8

Utah Law Review — January 1970: " U t a h Legislative Survey: Higher Education Act of 1969," by N E I L R. SABIN, 76-90; " U t a h Legislative Survey: T h e U C C C in U t a h , " by CLYDE A. R. R O M N E Y , 9 1 - 1 0 5 ; " U t a h Legislative Survey: T h e Family Court Act,"

by

NEIL

R.

SABIN,

" U t a h Legislative Survey:

106-21;

Criminal


371

Reviews and Publications and Civil Liability for Bad Checks in Utah," by EDWARD J. MCDONOUGH,

122-29; "Utah Legislative Survey: Utah's Judicial Administration: 1969," by CLYDE A. ROMNEY, 130-35 Western Folklore — XXIX, January 1970: "Notes and Queries — Frontier Birth Beliefs," by JUANITA BROOKS, 53-55

The Western Historical Quarterly — I, April 1970: "Strictly Personal," by

OSCAR OSBURN

WINTHER,

126-

36; "The American Association for State and Local History," by WILLIAM T. ALDERSON, JR., 175-82 Westways — 62, August 1970: "A New Park in the Great Salt Lake," by FRANK A. T I N K E R .

20-21


INDEX

Abney, J. C , Wyoming legislator who passed woman suffrage bill, 13 fn. 14 Abrams, Milton C , photograph, 350; " T h e President's Report For T h e Fiscal Year 1969-1970," 3 5 0 - 6 0 ; chairman of Committee on Historic and Cultural Sites, 354; committee member recommending awards to American Association for State and Local History, 358 Adams, M a u d e , biography, 67—71; born, 6 7 ; parents, 6 7 ; painting as Peter Pan, 6 8 ; photograph, 6 8 ; emphasis on realism, 69; first stage appearance, 6 9 ; triumphs, 70; reaction to role of Peter Pan, 70—71; died, 7 1 ; professor of d r a m a at Stephens College, Columbia, Missouri, 7 1 ; retired, 7 1 ; rumored married, 7 1 ; work with stage lighting, 71 Adondakis, George, Greek businessman in Bingham, 159 Aeschbacher, W. D., The Land Office Business: The Settlement and Administration of American Public Lands, 1789—1837, review by, 90 Agate, produced in U t a h , 242 Ajax Company, Greek business, 203 Alexander, Thomas G., "An Experiment in Progressive Legislation: T h e Granting of Woman Suffrage In U t a h I n 1870," 2 0 30 Allen, James B., " T h e Changing Impact of Mining O n the Economy of Twentieth Century U t a h , " 2 4 0 - 5 5 ; Ghost Towns of the American West, review by, 286-87 Allen, Rufus C , explored Colorado River, 210; president of Southern Indian Mission, 210; replaced as president of Indian Mission, 211 Alfieris, Mary Benakis, Greek school teacher, 184; photograph, 184 American Association for State and Local History, award winners, 358—60 American Hellenic Progressive Association, reason for founding, 186; photograph of Junior Band, 196 American Legion, led campaign against S o u t h E u r o p e a n s , 157—58; p r e j u d i c e toward Greeks, 167 American Smelting and Refining Company ( M u r r a y ) , strike called against, 123 The American West: Frontier & Region, by Caughey, reviewed, 86—87 Anderson, Sarah E., elected to U t a h State House of Representatives, 3 3 ; biography, 4 0 ; lawsuit over right to register as a voter, 40—42; major contribution to U t a h political history, 4 0 - 4 1 ; photograph, 4 1 ; bills introduced into legislature, 42; positions in U t a h Legislature, 42 Angelopoulos, Stephanos, Greek priest, 185; photograph, 185 Anthony, Susan B., photograph, 7; publication by, 8 fn. 2 Anton, George, photograph, 117 Anton, Gus, member of Salt Lake Holy Trinity church construction committee, 198 fn. 131 Arcadian Brotherhood, membership, 183

Arrington, Leonard J., "Women as a Force in the History of U t a h , " 3—6; guest editor of Utah Historical Quarterly, 352 Assumption (Greek Orthodox C h u r c h ) , consecration, 146, 1 4 7 - 4 8 ; photographs, 146, 196, 198; description, 146-47; first priest, 147; see also Greek Orthodox Church Athanasios Diakos, membership, 183 Athas, Chris, Greek businessman in Magna, 159 Athas, Peter E., Greek businessman in Magna, 159; photograph, 192; member of Salt Lake Holy Trinity church construction committee, 198, fn. 131 Athena Club, Greek youth organization, 195 Atwood, M. J., elected school trustee in Kamas, 36 fn. 9 Austrians, folklore, 60; number in Bingham (1912), 122 Avgikos, Tom, Greek businessman in Helper, 154, 159; author of article on why Greeks were reluctant to join U.S. Army in World War I, 154 B Babalis, -, labor agent, 128 Babcock, M a u d May, biography, 77-82 born, 78; decided to be elocutionist, 78 education, 7 8 ; met Susa Young Gates, 78 taught in New York, 7 8 ; converted to Mormonism, 79; family reaction to conversion, 79; left possessions to Mormon church, 79; taught at University of Utah, 79; developed university theatre, 79—80; photographs, 80; honors received, accomplishments, famous friends, 8 1 ; standards, 8 1 ; last production, 8 1 - 8 2 ; died, 8 2 ; little theatre of Pioneer Memorial Theatre named for, 82 Baker, Anna, officer of Industrial Home Association, 265 Baker, Pearl, Trail On The Water, reviewed, 282-83 Barboglis, Joseph, Italian banker in Helper, 180; K u Klux Klan threatened, 180 Bates, Redelia, eastern suffragist, 11 Batestas, Andrew, Greek businessman in Ogden, 158-59 Beale, Lieutenant Edward, reached Colorado River, 209 Bear River, description of country, 324; description, 331-32 Beatie, Phoebe, photograph, back cover, No. 1 Beehive House, placed on National Register of Historic Sites, 355 Bellaros, Ellen, photograph, 142 Benakis, Harry, Mrs. Greek school teacher, 183 Bennett, Russ, and Kay, A Navajo Saga, reviewed, 277—78 Bennett, W. H., labor promoter, 174 Berbis, Mary Nikas, photograph, 193 Bernstein, Jerome, Joe Hill, review by, 367— 68 Big Sandy, description of country, 322 Bigler, Henry, response to sea gulls, 232


Index Bingham, Greeks sent to work in mines, 116 photograph, 1 2 1 ; strike of 1912, 121-33 number of immigrants ( 1 9 1 2 ) , 122; de scription, 122; labor organizers active in, 123; miners demands, 123; native American miners against strike, 123; payscale for miners, 123; strike called, 123; strike issues, 123, 124, 125, 127, 129; National Guard and special deputies brought to, 124; strikers ordered out of mines, 124; mine owners claimed miners need not pay for jobs, 125; activity during strike, 126; arms brought into, 126; attitude of striking miners threatened to capitulate, 127; strikebreakers enter, 127, 129, 130, 1 3 0 3 1 ; deputies brought in, 128; residents leave, 128; Skliris hired strikebreakers for the mines of, 128; Charles Moyer convinced strikers not to return to work, 129; Japanese strike, 129; account of unarmed striker shot by mine company guard, 130; Highland Boy mine opened by strikebreakers, 130; U t a h Copper work resumed by s t r i k e b r e a k e r s , 130; b a t t l e in Galena Gulch, 1 3 1 - 3 2 ; achievements of 1912 strike, 132; raise in wages gained by strikers, 132; strike ended, 132; striking miners desperate, 132; bootlegging, 167; photograph of raid on bootleggers, 168 Borovilos, Paul, photograph, 199 Boulos, Gus, Greek sheep broker, 165 Bourazanis, Dorotheos, photograph, 120 Bowen, Albert E., married E m m a Lucy Gates, 74 Bowen, E m m a Lucy Gates, photographs, 65 7 3 ; daughter of Susa Young Gates, 71 granddaughter of Brigham Young, 71 won piano competition, 7 1 ; biography, 7 1 - 7 5 ; studied in Europe, 7 1 - 7 3 ; decided to take vocal lessons, 72; voice tutor, 72; debut at Royal O p e r a House in Berlin, 7 3 ; performed for Kaiser Wilhelm, 7 3 ; transferred to His Majesty's Royal O p e r a House in Kassel, 7 3 ; married, 74; music teacher, 74; opinion of Alex Templeton, 74; organized Lucy Gates O p e r a Company, 74; testimonial concert, 74; died, 75 Bradshaw, Dean, recipient of American Association for State and Local History Certificate of Commendation, 358-59 Bridger, Fort, painting, 323 Bright, William H., Wyoming legislator introduced woman suffrage bill, 11, 12; biography, 11-12, 13 fn. 14 Brimhall, Lila Eccles, student of M a u d May Babcock, 81 Bringhurst, William, explored Colorado River, 210 Brodie, Fawn M., "Sir Richard F. Burton: Exceptional Observer of the Mormon Scene," 295—311; reminiscences of college days, 296; photograph, 297 Brooks, Juanita, recipient of American Association for State and Local History Award of Merit, 358 Brown, Arthur, attorney, 42 Brunvand, J a n Harold, Cowboy and Western Songs: A Comprehensive Anthology, review by, 280-82

373 Bulgarians, number in Bingham ( 1 9 1 2 ) , 122 Burton, Richard F., "Sir Richard Burton: Exceptional Observer of T h e Mormon Scene," 2 9 5 - 3 1 1 ; painting, 2 9 5 ; delighted in shocking people, 2 9 7 ; life denounced as immoral, 297; opinion regarding "good" men, 297; opinion regarding the devil, 297; indignant, 2 9 7 - 9 8 ; accomplishments, 298; cannibalism religious ceremony, 298; interests, 2 9 8 ; true m a n of the Renaissance, 2 9 8 ; scholar, 2 9 9 ; visited Mecca, Harar, and Salt Lake City, 2 9 9 ; interviewed Brigham Young, 300; learned of three opinions concerning Mormons, 300; attitude of Mormons toward book by, 3 0 2 ; advantage as historian, 3 0 3 ; observations of polygamy, 3 0 4 - 5 ; no interest in politics, 3 0 5 ; humor of, 307, 3 0 8 ; reason Mormon male obedient to church hierarchy, 3 0 7 ; detachment about religion, 3 0 8 ; metaphors in writing, 3 0 8 ; perception of character, 3 0 9 - 1 0 ; description of Joseph Smith, 310; description of Brigham Young, 3 1 0 Buzis, John, arrested, 175; Greek coffeehouse owner, 175

Caine, J o h n T., photograph, 44 California, rejected woman suffrage, 1 6 - 1 7 ; enacted woman suffrage, 19 California Gulls, see Sea Gulls Callas, Ethel Baker, student of M a u d M a y Babcock, 79 Campbell, Eugene E., Utah: A Students' Guide to Localized History, review by, 278-79 Campbell, J o h n A., governor of Wyoming Territory, 15; personal habits, 15; signed woman suffrage bill, 15, 2 1 ; vetoed measure to repeal woman suffrage, 17 Campbell, M a r t h a M., officer of Industrial Home Association, 265 Campfire Frontier: Historical Stories and Poems of the Old West, by Hafen, reviewed, 9 0 - 9 1 Cannon, Abraham H., stated Mormon church hierarchy divided over woman suffrage, 35-36 Cannon, Angus M., lost election for state senate, 3 2 ; Republican candidate for U t a h Senate, 3 2 ; married M a r t h a Hughes, 4 3 ; photograph, 44 Cannon, Frank J., candidate for United States senator, 48 Cannon, George Q., advocate of woman suffrage, 22, 2 5 ; opposed immigration restrictions, 2 2 ; photographs, 23, 256; candidate for United States senator, 4 8 ; attempted to defeat Poland Bill, 257; attempted to prove Salt Lake County probate court fair in decisions, 257—58 Cannon, M a r t h a Hughes, photographs, 31, 4 4 ; Democratic candidate for U t a h Senate, 3 2 ; first woman state senator in U.S., 32; won election for state senate, 32; biography, 4 2 - 4 8 ; legislator, 4 2 - 4 8 ; children, 43, 4 7 ; established nurses training school, 4 3 ; married, 4 3 ; medical student, 4 3 ; phy-


374 sician, 4 3 ; schooling, 4 3 , typesetter, 4 3 ; activities in woman suffrage movement, 43—44; appraisal by reporters, 4 5 ; defended polygamy, 4 5 ; bills introduced in legislature, 45—46; appointed to State Board of Health, 4 6 ; board member of Deaf, D u m b and Blind School, 4 7 ; did not follow husband's dictates, 47 Cannon-Papanikolas, gift to U t a h State Historical Society, 352 Canyon Creek, tributary of Humboldt River, 334; description of country, 334—35 Captain, Gus, photograph, 192; member of Salt Lake Holy Trinity C h u r c h construction committee, 198 fn. 131 Carbon County, Greeks sent to work in coal mines of, 116; strike of 1922, 1 6 6 - 7 5 ; attacks against Greeks in, 167; bootlegging, 167; reason for striking, 168; Scofield incident, 169—70; deputy killed and officer of Standard Coal Company and striker wounded by strikers, 171 ; National G u a r d sent to quell strike in, 1 7 1 ; confrontation between strikers and company officers, 171—72; aftermath of shooting, 172; Helper searched by National Guard, 172; martial law in Helper, 172; mob action in Helper, 172; result of strike of 1912, 175 Carbon Fuel Company, Greek business, 203 Carroll, E m m a L., officer of Industrial H o m e Association, 265 Carson River, painting, 342; description, 3 4 2 ; description of country around, 342— 44 Carson Valley, description, 344-45 Cassius Creek, description of country, 333 Castle Gate, mine explosion, 177; men killed in explosion, 177; relief for families of mine explosion victims, 177; photograph of burial of Greek miners killed in mine explosion, 178; photograph, 179 Castles, George, Greek businessman in Salt Lake City, 158 Catt, Carrie C h a p m a n , 16; publication of. 16 fn. 24 Caughey, J o h n Walton, The American West: Frontier & Region, reviewed, 86—87 Cavalas, John, Greek butcher and baker in Scofield-Clear Creek area, 160; sheepman, 162 Cayias, George, member of Salt Lake Holy Trinity Church construction committee, 198 fn. 131 Cayias, Raymond, photograph, 193 Cayias, William, Greek detective, 155; photograph, 192 Chase Mill, Isaac, placed on National Register of Historic Sites, 355 Chase, Phillips M., doctor who treated immigrants, 59 Chimney Rock, Nebraska, painting of country near, 312 Chipian, Anast, Greek businessman in Bingham, 159 Chlepas, Con, Greek businessman in Magna, 159 Clark, Lucy A., defeated in election for U t a h State Senate, 33

Utah Historical Quarterly Coal, U t a h leading producer, 2 4 2 ; production, 2 4 3 - 4 4 ; employment, 243, 2 4 5 - 4 6 ; photograph of mines, 244; photograph of boilers, 2 4 5 ; fluctuations in production, 245—46; amount of explored, 250; value of manufacturing products from, 251 Colorado, extensive newspaper coverage on woman suffrage, 16; rejected bill on woman suffrage, 16; woman suffrage in state constitution, l 9 ; labor problems in the coal fields of, 135; people killed during labor troubles in, 135 Colorado River, "Colorado Exploration And T h e M o r m o n War," 207—23; engraving of Pyramid Canyon, 207; federal government reserved right to navigate, 208; government expeditions, 208—9; report of Lieutenant Sylvester Mowry, 2 0 8 ; Lieutenant Edward Beale reached, 2 0 9 ; Lieutenant Joseph C. Ives preparations to explore, 209; Mormon interest in, 2 0 9 ; reasons for interest in, 209; explored by Rufus C. Allen, 210; explored by William Bringhurst, 2 1 0 ; engraving of Chimney Peak, 2 1 1 ; George A. Johnson expedition, 2 1 3 15; engraving of Cottonwood Valley, 214; Joseph C. Ives expedition, 217—21; expedition of Jacob Hamblin, 218—21; map listing expeditions ( 1 8 5 5 - 5 8 ) , 220; Amasa M. Lyman expedition, 221—22; reasons for Mormon expeditions, 223 Combs, Barry B., Westward to Promontory: Building the Union Pacific across the plains and mountains. A pictorial documentary, reviewed, 91—92 Communications, employment in Utah, 246 Condas, John, Greek sheepman, 160, 161, 162; lifetime franchise of grazing rights on O q u i r r h Mountains, 1 6 1 ; sheep killed by arsenic wastes from U t a h Copper Company, 162 Cooley, Everett L., Utah: A Students' Guide to Localized History, reviewed, 2 7 8 - 7 9 ; photograph, 359; recipient of U t a h State Historical Society Honorary Life Membership, 360 Copper, most important metallic resource in U t a h , 2 4 2 ; production, 2 4 3 ; fluctuations in p r o d u c t i o n , 2 4 4 - 4 5 ; A r t h u r p l a n t closed, 2 4 5 ; M a g n a mill closed, 245; employment in mining, 249; photograph of Kennecott Copper Company, 251 Corelli, Blanche, tutored E m m a Lucy Gates Bowen, 72 Council House, description, 328 Cowboy and Western Songs: A Comprehensive Anthology, by Fife and Fife, reviewed, 280-82 Crickets, "Mormon, Crickets, and Gulls: A New Look At An Old Story," 2 2 4 - 3 9 ; 1847 pioneers noted in valley, 226; Peter Skene Ogden noted near Great Salt Lake, 226; attacked crops in Salt Lake Valley, 227; Isaac Haight noted attacked crops, 227, 2 2 8 ; John Steele noted attacked crops, 2 2 8 ; Mrs. Lorenzo Dow Young noted attacked crops, 227, 228; Mrs. Patty Sessions noted attacked crops, 228; characteristics of the Mormon, 229; methods used to fight invading, 229; invasions


Index

375

in 1849, 1850, 1855, 2 3 6 - 3 7 ; invaded Rush Valley ( U t a h ) , M a n d a n (North D a k o t a ) , M o n t a n a , Colorado, Saskatchewan, Tooele City ( U t a h ) , and Oregon, 237; see also Sea Gulls Critchlow, Hettie M., officer of Industrial H o m e Association, 265 Culleton, Phil, Bingham policeman aided Greek striker, 131-32 Cumming, Alfred E., appointed governor of U t a h Territory, 210 Curie, J o h n (Scotty), declared Greeks not entirely responsible for strike, 127 Cutrubus, Gus J., Greek businessman in Ogden, 158; Mrs. Greek schoolteacher, 183; Mrs. photograph, 185

D Dandolas, Nick, gambler, 119 Darling, James M., officer of Industrial Christian H o m e Association, 265 Dayton, Dello G., member of Committee of Historic a n d Cultural Sites, 3 5 4 ; committee m e m b e r recommending awards to American Association for State and Local History, 358 Deaf, D u m b , and Blind, act concerning education of children, 46 Delaney, Robert W., The Grand Colorado: The Story of a River and Its Canyons, review by, 285—86 Demas, James, Greek school teacher, 183 Demetra Club, Greek youth organization, 195; photograph of members, 195 Deming, , sheriff informed citizens of rights of Greeks, 179 Demiris, J o h n , Mrs. Greek school teacher, 183; Mrs. photograph, 184 Dempsey, Bruce, killed, 155; lynching of m u r d e r e r threatened, 155 Denos, Steve, Greek businessman of Price. 178 Denver & Rio Grande Western Railroad, Greek labor agent, 115 Deseret Musical and D r a m a t i c Association, formed, 6 6 - 6 7 Deseret, State of, women allowed to vote, 2 1 ; resolution concerning woman suffrage, 26 Devil's Gate, description, 318—19 DeVoto, Bernard, advantages as historian, 3 0 2 - 3 ; historian of Mormonism, 3 0 2 - 3 ; h u m o r of, 307; description of Joseph Smith, 3 1 0 ; description of Brigham Young, 311 Diamanti, John, prescribed folk cures a n d foretold future, 149—50; photograph of himself and family, 150; Greek businessm a n in Helper, 159; sheepman, 160, 1 6 1 ; owner of meat market in Helper, 161 Diamanti, Nick, Greek sheepman, 160 Diamondfield Jack: A Study in Frontier Justice, by Grover, reviewed, 279-80 Dickinson, Anna, eastern suffragist, 11 Diggings and Doings in Park City, by Price, reviewed, 276 Dimas, Charles, photograph, 152; Greek businessman in Bingham, 159

Diumenti, Steve, Greek businessman in Black Hawk, 159 Dokas, George, Greek businessman in Ogden, 158 D o r m a n , Eldon, member of Committee on Historic and Cultural Sites, 354 Dorrity, Sam, shot, 169; trial for assault against, 173 Douglas, Fort, placed on National Register of Historic Sites, 355 Down the Colorado: John Wesley Powell Diary of the First Trip Through The Grand Canyon, 1869, by Porter a n d Fowler, reviewed, 364—65 Dye, Delia, left employ of U t a h State Historical Society, 353—54 Doty, James D u a n e , biography written, 358 Dragatis, Harry, Greek businessman in Price, 159 The Dragon on the Hill: Utah's 38th Legislature: Analysis and Comment, by Emenhiser, 365-66 Drandos, Philip, photograph, 192 Drew, J o h n , played opposite M a u d e Adams, 69 D r u m m o n d , W. W., sent inflamatory report to federal government against Mormons, 210 Duniway, Abigail Scott, West's outstanding suffragist, 18

Echo Canyon, painting, 325 Economou, Maria, investigated living and working conditions of Greek immigrants in America, 137—38 Economy, " T h e Changing I m p a c t of Mining O n the Economy of Twentieth Century U t a h , " 2 4 0 - 5 5 ; input-output economic analysis of U t a h , 252—53 Edmunds-Tucker Act, passed, 18, 2 6 4 ; deprived women of the vote, 29, 33, 35 Ellis, George S., officer of Industrial Christian H o m e Association, 265 Emenhiser, JeDon, The Dragon on the Hill: Utah's 38th Legislature: Analysis and Comment, reviewed, 365—66 Engalitcheff, S u s a n n a B r a n s f o r d E m e r y Holmes Delitch, description, 5 England, Eugene, photograph of parents, 359; recipient of U t a h State Historical Society Service Award, 360 English, n u m b e r in Bingham ( 1 9 1 2 ) , 122 Enough Rope: The inside story of the censure of Senator Joe McCarthy by his colleagues—• the controversial hearings that signaled the end of a turbulent career and a fearsome era in American public life, by Watkins, reviewed, 2 8 7 - 8 9 Everett, Joseph A. F., U t a h artist, 85 Exploration, "Colorado E x p l o r a t i o n And The Mormon War," 207-23 Explorer, Lieutenant Joseph C. Ives's steamer to explore Colorado River, 2 0 9 ; engraving of, 2 1 1 ; steamed along Colorado, 217, 218, 2 1 9 ; Ives left, 221


376 Ferguson, Ellen B., defended polygamy, 2 6 7 68, 268 fn. 12 Ferry, Jeanette, president of Industrial Home Association, 265 Fife, Austin E., and Alta, Cowboy and Western Songs: A Comprehensive Anthology, reviewed, 280-82 Finns, number in Bingham ( 1 9 1 2 ) , 122 Firmage, Richard A., recipient of U t a h State Historical Society Student Award, 360 Flemetakis, Bill, photograph, 193 Flengas, Louis, photograph, 199 Floor, Andrew, Greek businessman in Salt Lake City, 158 Floor, George, Greek businessman in Salt Lake City, 158 Floor, Nick, photograph of children of, 149 Foltz, Clara S., California suffragist, 8 Fountas, George, photograph, 184; Price Greek school committee member, 184 Fourth of July, celebration of wagon train, 314 Fowler, Don D., and Eliot Porter, Down the Colorado: John Wesley Powell Diary of the First Trip Through the Grand Canyon, 1869, reviewed, 364—65 Fremont, John C , noted sea gulls near Great Salt Lake, 226 Frickson, Louis, Mrs. Greek school teacher, 183 Frontiersmen in Blue: The United States Army and the Indian, 1848-1865, by Utley, reviewed, 88-89

Galanis, James, Greek businessman in Helper, 159 Galanis, Nick, photograph of family, 194 Galena Gulch, battle, 131-32 Garfield, Greeks sent to work in smelter, 116; smeltermen refuse to handle ore mined by strikebreakers, 131 Gas, natural gas exported, 250 Gates, B. Cecil, organized Lucy Gates Opera Company, 74 Gates, E m m a Lucy, see Bowen, E m m a Lucy Gates Gates, Paul W., The Historical World of Frederick Jackson Turner, With Selections From His Correspondence, review by, 3 6 3 64 Gates, Susa Young, photograph, cover, No. 1; description, 5 ; diary entry, 5—6; appraisal of effects of woman suffrage in U t a h , 3 7 ; daughter, 7 1 ; head of choir and Music Department at Brigham Young Academy, 7 1 ; organist, 7 1 ; writer, 7 1 ; attended International Council of Women in London, 72; met M a u d May Babcock, 78; described U t a h to M a u d Babcock, 78 Gegonas, • (brothers), Greek businessmen in Helper, 159 Gem Stones, produced in U t a h , 242 Gemmel, R. C , attitude toward miners, 54, 138; U t a h Copper official denounced strike, 124; defended labor agent, 127

Utah Historical Quarterly Gentiles, attitude toward woman suffrage, 3 5 ; debate over control of probate courts, 256-58 Georgetown, California, description, 349 Georgelas, Pete, photograph of family, 108 Georgides, (brothers), Greek businessmen in Price, 159 Gerendas, John, Greek businessman in Helper, 159; photograph, 163 Germans, number in Bingham (1912), 122 Gold, produced in U t a h , 242; employment in mining, 249 Ghost Towns of the American West, by Silverberg, reviewed, 286—87 Giannopulos, James, Greek sheepman, 160 Golden Pass, description, 325 Goodman, Jack, member of Committee on Historic and Cultural Sites, 354 Goose Creek, description of country, 334 The Grand Colorado: The Story of a River and its Canyons, by Watkins and Contributors, reviewed, 285-86 Gray (Kyriakos), James, Greek school teacher, 183 Great Basin, description, 335—36 Great Salt Lake, description of route around northern end of, 330-33 Greece, economy, 52, 104; defeated Turkey, 5 2 ; principle export failed, 5 2 ; history, 100-4, 107; photograph, 1 0 1 ; Turkish influence, 104; government alarmed over emigration of young men, 108, 136; condition of young women in, 109; poem about, 133; citizenship status of persons born on Greek land, 1 3 4 - 3 5 ; attempted to get native sons to return, 136-37, 168; investigated charges of mistreatment of immigrants to America, 137—38; importance of money sent by emigrant sons to economy of, 158; advances in, 2 0 1 ; average income in 1939, 2 0 1 ; action in World W a r I I , 202-3 Greek American Progressive Association, reason for founding, 186; photograph of picnic, 188 Greek Orthodox Church, first priests in America, 115; first services and church in Salt Lake City, 115; second church in U t a h , 146; description of a, 146-47; Holy Week, 194—95; photograph of flowered tomb of Christ, 195; changes in America in, 198-99; photograph of memorial service for King George II, 199; women's organization, 199 Greeks, in Utah, 53, 109, 110, 116; conditions among immigrants, 54, 107-8, 110— 12, 116, 118-20, 138; medical aid to immigrant miners, 54, 55, 56, 138, 149; status of women in America, 56, 140-44; folk cures, 5 7 - 5 8 , 111, 149, 150, 164-65; Americans attitude toward, 59, 112—14, 119, 120, 153, 154-56, 155, 167, 178-79, 202; description of M a g n a Greek Town, 5 9 ; Toil and Rage in a New Land: The Greek Immigrants in Utah, 9 7 - 2 0 3 ; character of, 100, 103; reason for immigrating to America, 100, 104-5, 107, 135-36; painting of Revolution of 1821, 102; immigrated to America, 104-5, 107, 108,


Index 2 0 0 - 2 ; dowry system, 105; photograph of early emigrants, 105; photograph of emigrant wearing foustanella, 106; labor agents, 107, 117; attitude of mine operators toward, 109; photograph of Cretan, 109; ignorant of rights, 110; church services in Salt Lake City, 115; reaction to American contempt, 113; report of U.S. Immigration Commission and Dr. Harry Laughlin on immigration of, 114; Greek Town in Salt Lake City, 114; Johnson Act of 1921, 114; interpreters, 116-17; vengence against persecution, 117; women in U t a h ( 1 9 1 0 ) , 1 1 7 - 1 8 ; customs performed by women, 1 1 7 - 1 8 ; photograph of coffeehouse, 118; coffeehouse, 118-19, 120; photograph of funeral, 120; vendetta, 120; number in Bingham ( 1 9 1 2 ) , 122; money sent to homeland, 126, 126 fn. 51, 158; protest treatment to consul in Washington, D . C , by Bingham mine companies, 130; battle between strikers and deputies, 131-32; effect of 1912 Bingham strike on, 133; photographs of weddings, 134, 136, 142, 148; return to homeland in 1912, 1 3 4 - 3 5 ; attitude toward mine operators and American government, 135; photograph of coal miners, 137; beginning of Americanization, 139; brides of early immigrants, 1 3 9 - 4 3 ; women who migrated to America, 1 4 0 - 4 1 ; moral code, 142; attitude of Mormons toward, 143; "Greek Towns" in U t a h , 1 4 4 - 4 5 ; food, 145, 1 4 8 - 4 9 ; homes, 145; hospitality of, 145; boardinghouses, 145-46, 1 6 1 ; icons, 146, 149; photograph of baptism, 148; weddings, 141, 148-49; midwives, 149; ceremonies of, 1 5 1 ; photograph of returned World W a r I soldiers, 152; efforts during World War I, 153; reluctant to join U.S. Army, 153, 154; nationalism, 154; importance of American citizenship to, 156; Italians unite with, 156; trouble in Price, U t a h , 156; early businessmen in Utah, 1 5 8 - 6 0 ; in competition with company stores, 1 6 0 - 6 1 ; sheepmen, 1 6 0 - 6 5 ; life in a sheep camp, 163; sheepherders, 164-65; attitude toward prohibition, 167; strike in Carbon County, 1 6 8 - 7 5 ; J o h n Tenas murdered, 169; public opinion toward Carbon County strikers, 169; Scofield incident, 169-70; attitude of Americans toward Carbon County strikers trial, 172—75; Americanization program, 174, 179—80; attitude of Americans toward Carbon County strikers, 175; customs of widows and orphans, 177; Castle Gate mine explosion, 177; photograph of burial of miners killed in Castle Gate mine explosion, 178; leading businesses in Helper, 180; banded with Italians, Slavic people, and Irish-Catholic railroad men against Ku Klux Klan, 1 8 0 - 8 1 ; first generation American children of, 1 8 1 ; influence of professional people on, 1 8 1 ; Americanization of, 183; schools, 183, 190; fraternal organizations, 183-86, 195-96; social life, 183-96, 187—89; photographs, of schools and teachers, 184, 185, 2 0 1 ; life in the 1920's, 187; photographs of civic and so-

377 cial activities, 187, 188, 192; church, 189; photograph of Cretans, 189; RoyalistV e n i z e l i s t issue, 189; p h o t o g r a p h of Y M C A Sunday school in Helper, 190; effect of Depression on, 1 9 0 - 9 2 ; attitude toward World W a r I I , 1 9 6 - 9 7 ; AmericanGreeks help their fathers' homeland, 200 Green River, description, 322; description of ferry, 322; description of country, 323 Grover, David H., Diamondfield Jack: A Study in Frontier Justice, reviewed, 279-80 Guadelupe Hidalgo, Treaty of, reserved right to navigate Colorado River, 208 Gypsum, deposits in U t a h , 242

H Hafen, Ann Woodbury, Campfire Frontier: Historical Stories and Poems of the Old West, reviewed, 90-91 Hagiographer, useful to his sect, 308-9 Haight, Isaac, noted crickets attacked crops, 227, 228 Haliori, Helen, Greek school teacher, 183; photograph, 184 Hall, Fort, description of country at j u n : tion of Salt Lake Road and road of, 333 Halles, Gregory, dispenser of everything needed for Greek ceremonial life, 1 5 1 ; photographs of Mr. and Mrs., 151, 186 Hamblin, Jacob, president of Southern Indian Mission, 2 1 1 ; mission to "control" Indians, 2 1 1 - 1 2 ; expedition along Colorado River, 216-17, 2 1 8 - 2 1 ; exploring party left Vegas Springs, 218; proceeded on Colorado River expedition on foot, 219 Harding, Warren, President asked to settle strike, 171 Harper, Ida Husted, suffragist, 8; publication by, 8 fn. 2 Harrison, E. L. T., favored woman suffrage, 24; photograph, 28 Hartley, William, "Mormons, Crickets, and Gulls: A New Look At An Old Story," 224-39 Harwood, J. T., U t a h artist, 85 Haskell, Thales, expedition along Colorado River, 2 1 6 - 1 7 ; met Ives expedition, 2 1 8 19; proceeded on Colorado River expedition on foot, 219 Hatch, Abram, proposed giving U t a h women suffrage, 25 Hatch, Ira, sent on mission to Mojaves, 212: Indians hostile toward, 212; member of Colorado River expedition of Amasa Lyman, 221-22 Health, problems enforcing laws concerning, 4 6 ; state board created, 4 6 ; law to teach effects of alcohol and narcotics in public schools, 47 Heleotes, Angelo, photographs, 105, 134; photograph of Mrs., 134 Heleotes, Chris, photograph, 105 Hellenic Society, reason for establishing, 147 Helper, center of K u Klux Klan activity, 180 Flemonas, Georgia, photograph of baptism, 148 Henderson, H. P., attorney, 42 Herrick, William, Wyoming legislator who passed woman suffrage bill, 13 fn. 14


378 Hickman, Bill, probate court suits by, 260—61 Hicks, J o h n D., My Life with History, An Autobiography, reviewed, 284—85 High Road to Promontory: Building the Central Pacific (now the Southern Pacific) across the High Sierra, by K r a u s , reviewed, 93—94 Hirshson, Stanley, description of Brigham Young, 3 1 1 ; The Lion of the Lord: A Biography of Brigham Young, reviewed, 361-62 Historic Sites Survey, Historic a n d Cultural Sites committee members, 3 5 4 ; preservation officer, 3 5 4 ; State Register of Historic Sites established, 354; monies requested, 3 5 5 ; sites placed on National Register of Historic Sites, 3 5 5 ; sites placed on State Register of Historic Sites, 3 5 5 ; tentative plan for preservation developed, 3 5 5 ; certificates and plaques developed, 356; objectives, 356; preservation achievements, 356; see also U t a h State Historical Society The Historical World of Frederick Jackson Turner, With Selections From His Correspondence, by Jacobs, reviewed, 363—64 Holy Trinity Church (Greek Orthodox C h u r c h ) , consecrated, 60, 198; photographs, 191, 199; p h o t o g r a p h of first board of trustees, 1 9 1 ; construction committee, 198 fn. 1 3 1 ; see also Greek O r t h o dox C h u r c h Hooper, William H , favored woman suffrage, 24 H o m e , Alice Merrill, art patron, 8 2 ; born, 8 2 ; parents, 8 2 ; biography, 8 2 - 8 5 ; early life, 8 2 - 8 3 ; "Alice Art Collection" named in honor of, 8 3 ; chairman of Public Health Commission, 8 3 ; children, 83, 83 fn. 5 5 ; contributions to field of art, 83—85; education, 8 3 ; husband, 83 fn. 5 5 ; legislator, 8 3 ; member general board of national Relief Society, 8 3 ; organizer, 8 3 ; president Daughters of U t a h Pioneers, 8 3 ; sponsored exhibits, 8 3 - 8 4 ; wrote text on U t a h art, 8 4 ; honors received, 8 5 ; opened art gallery, 85 H o m e , George H., husband of Alice Merrill H o m e , 83 fn. 55 Hot Sulpher Springs, description, 330 Howard, Mary W., mayor and chairman of K a n a b Town Board, 61 fn.; photograph, 6 1 ; "An Example of W o m e n in Politics," 6 1 - 6 4 ; acts by, 6 2 - 6 3 ; children, 64; fruit festival, 6 4 ; reception for Governor William Spry, 64 H u m b o l d t Mountains, description, 335 H u m b o l d t River, description of country, 335— 41 Hundley, Jr., Norris, and J o h n A. Schutz, eds., The American West: Frontier & Region, reviewed, 86—87 Huse, Clara, officer of Industrial Christian H o m e Association, 265 Hyde. Orson, first mentioned the "Miracle of the Gulls," 233

Utah Historical Quarterly I Iakovos, Archbishop, photograph, 202 Idaho, woman suffrage in state constitution, 19 Independence Rock, description, 317, 3 1 8 ; paintings, 317, 318 Indians, Mormons expanded alliances with, 210—11; hostility along Colorado River, 2 1 3 ; migrant view of in Salt Lake Valley, 330-31 Industrial Christian H o m e Association, Mormon idea of movement, 265 fn.4; organized, 2 6 4 ; officers, 2 6 5 ; objects, 265; memorial to establish, 2 6 7 ; see also Women's Christian Industrial Home Irish, number in Bingham ( 1 9 1 2 ) , 122 Iron, photograph of mining, 240; produced in U t a h , 2 4 2 ; establishment of Geneva Steel, 246; a m o u n t exported, 250 Italians, n u m b e r in Bingham ( 1 9 1 2 ) , 122 Ives, Joseph C , authority and preparations to explore Colorado River, 209; expedition on the Colorado River, 2 1 7 - 2 1 ; made friends with Mojaves, 217; reached expedition's high point of navigation on Colorado River, 2 1 8 ; met Thales Haskell, 218-19 I W W , active in Bingham, 122

Jackling, Daniel C , vice-president of U t a h Copper Company defended labor agent, 125; stated men did not have to pay to get jobs, 127; refused to recognize Western Federation of Labor, 130; announced U t a h Copper Company would increase miners' wages, 132 Jackson, William Henry, paintings, 312, 317, 318,321,323,325,326 Jacobs, Wilbur R., The Historical World of Frederick Jackson Turner, With Selections From His Correspondence, reviewed, 3 6 3 64 Jacobson, Pearl, photograph, 3 5 9 ; recipient of U t a h State Historical Society Service Award, 360 Japanese, n u m b e r in Bingham ( 1 9 1 2 ) , 122; worked as bank men in Bingham mines, 122-23 Jennings, Jesse D., member of Committee on Historic and Cultural Sites, 354; photograph, 3 5 9 ; m a d e U t a h State Historical Society Fellow, 360 Jerefos, Nick, photograph, 192 Jimas, James, Greek businessman in Bingham,'159 Joe Hill, by Smith, reviewed, 367-68 Johnson Act of 1921, 114 Johnson, Elaine, recipient of U t a h State Historical Society Student Award, 360 Johnson, Elmer, major National Guard declared martial law in Helper, 172 Johnson, George A., expedition u p Colorado River, 213—15; benefits from Colorado River expedition, 223 Jones, Mother, labor leader, 109; arrested, 109-10 Jouflas, Chris, photograph, 150 Jouflas, John, Greek sheepman, 160


Index

379

Jouflas, Pete, photograph of Mrs. 140; Greek businessman in Helper, 159; sheepman, 160, 1 6 1 ; owner of meat market in Helper, 161 Jouflas, Ted, Greek sheepman, 160 Julian, George Washington, introduced congressional bill to give woman suffrage in territories, 9

K Kaddis, Gus, photograph, 163 Kalogeropoulos, Antonios, Greek priest, 199; photograph, 199 Kambourakis, Gus, Greek school teacher, 183 Kanab, account of all-woman town board and woman mayor, 61—64; acts of allwoman town board, 62—63; reception for Governor William Spry, 64 Kane, Thomas L., conference with Brigham Young, 216; met Amasa Lyman, 216; stated sea gulls unknown in valley before attacking crickets, 230—31 Kansas, only state west of Rockies with woman suffrage, 19 Kansas, only state west of Rockies with woman suffrage, 19 Kanyon Creek, description of country, 326 Karavellas, , labor agent, 128 Karpakis, Chris, photograph of Mr. and Mrs., 148 Karras, Nick F., Greek businessman in Price, 159; photograph of Mrs. (Bessie D u n t o n ) , 193 Katrakis, Mike, shot by U t a h Copper guard, 130; account of shooting of, 130 Katris, Dorothy, Greek school teacher, 183 Kearns Mansion, Thomas, placed on National Register of Historic Sites, 355 Keller, Fred W., photograph, 357 Kelly, Charles, Diamond field Jack: A Study in Frontier Justice, review by, 279-80 Kelter, T. F., escorted Young out of Scofield after Young shot Greek striker, 169 Kimball, Sarah M., photograph, back cover, No. 1 ; nationally known woman's rights advocate, 27 King, Karl V., brought Greeks to United States, 203 King, Sam A., Carbon County strikers version of shooting told by, 172; attorney for Greeks in Carbon County, 1 7 0 - 7 1 ; warned Greeks against violence, 171; condemned mob action in Helper, 172; defended Carbon County strikers accused of killing deputy, 1 7 2 - 7 5 ; photograph, 173 King, Volney, diary acquired by U t a h State Historical Society, 354 King, William H., dissenting vote from U t a h Supreme Court that women not entitled to vote, 42 Kingman, John W., reason for passing woman suffrage bill, 14; Wyoming Supreme Court justice, 14; reason Wyoming legislature passed woman suffrage bill, 16 Kiousios, Chris, 127 Kiskadden, Asenath Ann (Annie), M a u d e Adams mother, 6 7 ; involved in theatre productions, 67-69 Kiskadden, James, father of M a u d e Adams, 67

Kiskadden, M a u d e , see Adams, M a u d e Klekas, John, photograph of Mrs., 144; Greek school teacher, 183 Klekas, Nick, photograph of Mrs., 144 Kochonis, John, Greek sheepman, 160 Kotsolios, Stellios, photographs, 193 Kotsovos, John, photograph, 192 Koulouris, James, Greek sheepman, 160, 161 ; owner of meat market in Helper, 161; photograph of family, 163 Koulouris, Mary, photograph, 163 Koulouris, Nick, photograph, 163 Kounalis, Sam, member of Salt Lake Floly Trinity church construction committee 198 fn. 131 Kraus, George, High Road to Promontory: Building the Central Pacific (now the Southern Pacific) across the High Sierra, reviewed, 93—94 K u Klux Klan, hostility toward Greek immigrants, 5 9 ; arose in U t a h , 177; newspaper coverage of, 1 7 7 - 7 8 ; burned crosses, 180; gained power, 180; Helper center of activity of, 180; paraded in Salt Lake City, 180; prominent citizens in M a g n a members of, 180; activity in Carbon County, 1 8 0 - 8 1 ; activity culminated in lynching, 1 8 1 ; filed papers of incorporation in Salt Lake City, 181 Kukis, Pete, Webb murder trial, 173

L a Barthe, Eurithe K., elected to U t a h State House of Representatives, 3 3 ; biography, 38; "High H a t Law," 3 8 - 3 9 ; curfew ordinance, 39; memorial concerning Women's Industrial Christian Home, 3 9 ; photograph, 39 Labor, organizers active in Bingham, 123; organizers arrested, 123; see also I W W and Western Federation of Labor Lamar, Howard R., Frontiersmen in Blue: The United States Army and the Indians, 1848-1865, review by, 8 8 - 8 9 ; photograph, 357 Lamb, George, Greek businessman in Logan, 159 Lambrides, Vasilios, Greek priest in Bingham, 126 Lambros, James, photograph, 192 The Land Office Business: The Settlement and Administration of American Public Lands, 1798-1837, by Rohrbaugh, 90 Laramie Mountains, description, 314 Larson, Gustive O., "An Industrial Home for Polygamous Wives," 263-75 Larson, T. A., " W o m a n Suffrage in Western America," 7—19 Las Vegas, Mormon Indian Mission, established, 209-10 Lathouris, Georgia, see Mageras, Magerou Latsis, James, photograph, 192 Lawrence, Henry W., officer of Industrial Christian Home Association, 265 Lead, produced in Utah, 242; employment in mining, 249 Leavitt, Dudley, sent on mission to Mojaves, 212; Indians hostile toward, 212; expedi-


Utah Historical Quarterly

380 tion along Colorado River, 216—17; sent to Las Vegas, 219 Lee, Edward M., encouraged passage of woman suffrage, 12; secretary of Wyoming Territory, 12; reason for passing woman suffrage bill, 1 2 - 1 3 , 15 Lenderis, (brothers), Greek businessmen in Helper, 159 Leonard, Glen M., head of National Endowment for the Humanities Pilot Project, 358 Lester, Margaret, employed on Pioneer Village-Mormon Trail project, 357 Leventis, John, leader of the Cretan Bingh a m mine strikers, 130; photograph, 1 3 1 ; arrested in connection with battle between strikers and deputies, 1 3 1 ; photograph of Mrs., 144; businessman in Bingham, 159; sheepman, 160 Leventis, Steve, arrested in connection with battle between strikers and deputies, 1 3 1 ; Greek businessman in Bingham, 159 Lewis, H . E., general manager of Standard Coal Company wounded by Carbon County strikers, 1 7 1 ; stated shooting started by strikers, 171—72; identified strikers who killed Webb, 172 Lewman, Sam, account of shooting unarmed Greek striker, 130 Liebler, H. Baxter, A Navajo Saga, review by, 277-78 Linardos, Nick, photograph, 164 Linderfelt, Lieutenant K. E., responsible for Ludlow massacre, 135 The Lion of the Lord: A Biography of Brigham Young, by Hirshson, reviewed, 361— 62 Locke, E. G., Westeren Federation secretary arrested, 131 Locke, M a r t h a A., officer of Industrial Home Association, 265 Lord, Clifford L., ed., Utah: A Students' Guide to Localized History, reviewed, 278-79 Louras, John, Greek sheepman, 160 Lovrich, Pete, photograph of M r . and Mrs., 157 Lowe, George A., officer of Industrial Christian Home Association, 265 Ludlow Massacre, people killed, 135 Luke, Theron, member of Committee on Historic and Cultural Sites, 354 Lyman, Amasa M., met Thomas L. Kane, 216; reported activities along the Colorado River to Brigham Young, 2 1 6 ; expedition along Colorado River, 221—22; located place on Colorado River for defensive stand against invading army, 222 Lythgoe, Dennis L., Mormonism's Negro Policy: Social and Historical Origins, review by, 362—63 Lyons, I r a E., officer of Industrial Christian H o m e Association, 265

Mc McBride, George, doctor who treated immigrants, 59 McClellan, Delia, photograph, 3 5 9 ; recipient of U t a h State Historical Society Teacher Award, 360

M c C u n e , Alfred W., candidate for United States senator, 48 M c G r a w , W. M. F., sent inflamatory report to federal government against Mormons, 210

M Mabey, Charles, promised armed aid against Carbon County strikers, 169; sent National G u a r d to Carbon County to quell strike, 171 Mageras, Magerou, photographs, 50, 58, 148; " M a g e r o u : T h e Greek Midwife," 5 0 6 0 ; born, 5 1 ; early life in Greece, 5 1 ; children, 52, 60 fn. 10; married, 5 2 ; arrived in America, 5 4 ; all nationalities treated by, 5 5 ; matchmaker, 5 5 ; treated sick countrymen, 5 5 ; appearance, 5 6 ; midwife to immigrant mothers, 5 6 ; midwife routine and care of mother and baby, 5 6 5 7 ; folk cures, 57—58; saved men's limbs, 5 8 ; set broken bones, 5 8 ; assisted doctors, 5 9 ; immigrants returned to care from, 5 9 ; character, 6 0 ; died, 6 0 ; progeny, 60 Mageras, Nick, photograph, 50; children, 52, 60 fn. 10; early life, 5 2 ; married, 5 2 ; sent to Greece to construct bridge, 5 2 ; immigrated to America, 52—53; boardinghouses burned, 5 3 ; money destroyed, 5 3 ; moved to U t a h , 5 3 ; boardinghouses in Snaketown, 5 3 ; out of favor with Greek labor agent, 5 3 ; representative for Salt Lake Brewery, 5 3 ; brought family to America, 54, died, 60 M a g n a , description of Greek Town, 5 9 ; Greeks sent to work in mill, 116 M a g n a M o t o r Company, owners, 157; photograph, 157 Mahleras, Angelo, Greek sheepmen, 160 Mahleras, Harry, threatened by marshal, 161 Malkogliannis, Nick, Greek sheepman, 160 Malmquist, O. N., The Dragon on the Hill: Utah's 38th Legislature: Analysis and Comment, review by, 365—66 Mamales, William, photograph of Mrs., 144 Mandelis, Jim, photograph, 182 M a n h o o d Suffrage, Fifteenth Amendment adopted, 20 Maniotis, Andreas, Greek sheepman, 162; troubles over sheep, 162 Maniotis, Christ, Greek sheepman, 162; trouble over sheep, 162 Maniotis, John, Greek sheepman, 162; trouble over sheep, 162 M a n n , S. A., U t a h acting governor signed woman suffrage bill, 26 Manousos, George, rumored to be charged with assault, 169; trial for assault on Sam Dorrity, 173 Mantes, Ernest, Greek businessman in Magna, 159 Manufacturing, production in Utah, 246; concerned with metals, 2 4 7 - 4 8 ; value, 2 5 1 ; employment in U t a h , 252 Margetts, Phil, played in Salt Lake Theatre, 69 M a r k h a m , Freed L., member of Committee on Historic and Cultural Sites, 354


Index Marthakis, P. S., photograph, 1 9 3 ; member of Salt Lake Holy Trinity church construction committee, 198 fn. 131 Martinez, Rodolfo, Enough Rope: The inside story of the censure of Senator Joe McCarthy by his colleagues — the controversial hearings that signaled the end of a turbulent career and a fearsome era in American public life, review by, 287-89 Mavroandreas, Gus, Greek sheepman, 162 Me and Mine: The Life Story of Helen Sekaquaptewa, by Udall, 283-84 Melis, Nick, photograph, 192 Melos, Pete, Greek sheepman, 160 Memorial Hall, erected to honor GreekAmerican war dead, 198 Menefee, J. W., Wyoming legislator who passed woman suffrage bill, 13 fn. 14 Merrill, Alice, see H o m e , Alice Merrill Merrill, Bathsheba, mother of Alice Merrill H o m e , 82 Merrill, Clarence, father of Alice Merrill H o m e , 82 Methodists, Women's Home Missionary Society contributed money for establishment of Industrial Home, 264 Metos, George, Greek butcher and baker in Scofield-Clear Creek area, 160; Greek sheepman, 162 Michelog, Nick, Greek businessman in Price, 159 Michelog, Tony, Greek businessman in Helper, 159 Midgley, Waldo, U t a h artist, 85 Miller, David E., member of Committee on Historic and Cultural Sites, 354 Miller, E m m a C , officer of Industrial H o m e Association, 265 Miller, Louis, Wyoming legislator who passed woman suffrage bill, 13 fn. 14 Minerals, labor force in U t a h , 242; produced in U t a h , 2 4 2 ; U t a h ' s non-metallic, 2 4 2 ; value of minerals produced in U t a h , 242, 247; production exported, 2 4 9 - 5 0 ; inputoutput economic analysis, 252—53 Mining, company store and scrip, 1 6 0 - 6 1 ; " T h e Changing Impact of Mining O n the Economy of Twentieth Century U t a h , " 2 4 0 - 5 5 ; influence on U t a h , 2 4 1 ; worth of metals mined in U t a h ( 1 9 0 0 ) , 2 4 1 ; resources in U t a h , 2 4 1 - 4 2 : employment, 242, 243, 244, 246, 246-47, 247; metals mined in U t a h , 242; non-metallic minerals in U t a h , 2 4 2 ; income from, 247; economic dependence in U t a h , 2 4 8 ; taxes paid by industry, 2 4 9 ; payroll ( 1 9 6 4 ) , 250; percentage exported, 250; primary manufacturing, milling, a n d smelting done in U t a h , 2 5 0 ; relationship to economy, 251 Minos Club, membership, 1 8 3 ; photograph of picnic, 187 Moffat, D e a n A., doctor who treated immigrants, 59 Mojaves, Chiefs Cairook and Ireteba friendly with Joseph Ives, 2 1 7 ; engraving of Cairook and Ireteba, 2 1 8 ; hostile attitude toward Ives Expedition, 219; Lyman expedition impressed with physiques of, 222; cautious toward Mormons, 222

381 M o n t a g u e , Keith E., The West of Alfred Jacob Miller (1837) from the Notes and Water Colors in the Walters Art Gallery with an account of the artist, review by, 87-88 Moorman, Donald R., The American West: Frontier & Region, review by, 86—87 Morgan, Dale L., The Lion of the Lord: A Biography of Brigham Young, review by, 361-62 Morgan, James, secretary of Wyoming Miners Union, 171 M o r m o n Battalion, n u m b e r of women with, 3 M o r m o n Cricket, see Crickets Mormonism's Negro Policy: Social and Historical Origins, by Taggart, reviewed, 362-63 Mormons, role played by pioneering women, 4 ; attitude toward woman suffrage, 29— 30, 3 5 ; music, 6 6 ; arts 66—67; attitude of Greeks toward, 143; "Colorado Exploration And T h e Mormon W a r , " 2 0 7 - 2 3 ; interested in Colorado River, 209; reasons for interest in Colorado River, 209, 2 2 3 ; Indian Mission in Las Vegas established, 2 0 9 - 1 0 ; outlying settlers recalled to Salt Lake City, 2 1 0 ; reports against sent to federal government, 210; Indian alliances expanded, 2 1 0 - 1 1 ; "Mormons, Crickets, And Gulls: A New Look At An Old Story," 2 2 4 - 3 9 ; 1847 pioneers noted crickets in Valley, 2 2 6 ; response to sea gulls, 232; contemporary accounts which do not mention the miracle of the gulls, 2 3 3 - 3 4 ; harvest after miracle of the gulls, 234—35; debate over control of probate courts, 256 5 8 ; defended polygamy, 267— 6 8 ; three opinions on anything connected with, 300; problems faced by historian, 300—1; requirements for writer of, 3 0 0 - 1 , 302, 3 0 8 ; criticisms of historians who write about, 301—2; attitude toward Richard F. Burton, City of the Saints, 302; writers distort history, 3 0 2 ; "obedient g r o u p " theory, 3 0 5 ; status of men and women, 3 0 5 ; humor of historians of, 307; reason male obedient to church hierarchy, 3 0 7 ; intent of devout or agnostic historian, 309; description of Green River ferry, 3 2 2 ; migrant view of, 329 Morris, Esther, Wyoming justice of the peace 1870, 15, 17 Mortensen, Dorothy Z., Camp fire Frontier: Historical Stories and Poems of the Old West, review by, 90—91 Moscho, Harry, Mrs. Greek school teacher, 183 Moser, Henri, U t a h artist, 85 M o u n t a i n Meadows Massacre, 211 Mower, Diane, recipient of U t a h State Historical Society Student Award, 360 Moyer, Charles W., attempted to hold off strike, 123; president of Western Federation of Labor, 123; tried to convince strikers to leave Bingham mines, 125; conducted Governor William Spry and party in Bingham, 127; convinced Bingham miners not to return to work, 129


Utah Historical Quarterly

382 Moyle, James D., member of Committee on Historic and Cultural Sites, 354 Mullins, Mrs. George, first woman to vote in U t a h after statehood, 36—37 fn. 9 Murray, Eli H , governor of U t a h supported Industrial Christian Home Association, 264 Murray-Midvale, Greeks sent to work in smelter, 116 Murrin, T . D., Wyoming legislator who passed woman suffrage bill, 13 fn. 14 Musser, Burton, doctor who treated immigrants, 59 My Life with History, An Autobiography, by Hicks, reviewed, 284-85

N Nash, Gerald D., Westward to Promontory: Building the Union Pacific across the plains and mountains. A pictorial documentary, review by, 91-92 National American W o m a n Suffrage Association, 19 A Navajo Saga, by Bennett and Bennett, reviewed, 2 7 7 - 7 8 Nebecker, Aquila, attitude toward running against a woman for U t a h State Senate, 3 3 ; elected to U t a h State Senate, 3 3 ; photograph, 4 4 ; candidate for United States senator, 47 Nebraska, description of bluff near Scottsbluff, 3 1 3 - 1 4 Negro, photograph of lynched, 180; lynched in Carbon County, 181 Netolicky, Stephen, doctor who treated immigrants, 59 Nevada, d e s c r i p t i o n of o v e r l a n d t r a v e l through to California, 335—43 New Mexico, only state west of Rockies without woman suffrage, 19 Newby, William W., volunteer service to U t a h State Historical Society by Dr. and Mrs., 354; Dr. and Mrs. recipients of U t a h State Historical Society Service Award, 360 Newman, Angie F., promoter of Women's Industrial Home, 2 6 4 ; vice-president of Industrial H o m e Association, 2 6 5 ; enlisted support in Washington, D.C., for Industrial Christian Home, 2 6 6 - 6 7 ; protested closing Women's C h r i s t i a n I n d u s t r i a l Home, 273 Nibley, Richard, Mr. and Mrs. recipients of American Association for State and Local History Certificate of Commendation, 358 Nikolodemos, Gus (Gus M o r m o n ) , Greek sheepman, 162; sheep broker, 165 Nineteenth Amendment, see W o m a n Suffrage

Obsidian, production in U t a h , 242 Ogden, Peter Skene, noted sea gulls near U t a h - I d a h o border, 2 2 5 - 2 6 ; noted crickets near Great Salt Lake, 226 Oregon Short Line Railroad, Greeks sent to work for, 116 Owens, Russell, doctor who treated immigrants, 59

Padaladonis ( P a p a n d o n i s ) , George, died in fight between deputies and strikers, 131 P a n Hellenic Grocery Store, operated in Bingham by Leonidas Skliris, 122 Panahaikos, membership, 184, 186 Panhellenic Unions, disbanded, 183 Pagialakis, , Webb murder trial, 173 Papacosta, James, Greek businessman in Helper, 159 Papailion, G. A., Greek consul in Salt Lake City, 153 Papanikolas, Emmanuel, photograph of Mr. and Mrs., 139; photograph of children of, 149; photograph of memorial wheat for, 1 5 1 ; Greek businessman in Magna, 159 Papanikolas, George, Greek businessman in Magna, 159 Papanikolas, Helen Zeese, " M a g e r o u : T h e Greek Midwife," 5 0 - 6 0 ; Toil and Rage in a New Land: The Greek Immigrants in Utah, 9 7 - 2 0 3 ; biography, 204; author of history of Greeks in U t a h printed in Utah Historical Quarterly, 352; photograph, 359; recipient of U t a h State Historical S o c i e t y M o r r i s S. R o s e n b l a t t Award, 360 Papanikolas, Kost, Greek businessman in Magna, 159 Papanikolas, Nick, gift to U t a h State Historical Society, 352 Papanikolas, William, Greek businessman in Magna, 159 Papoulas, John, Greek sheepman, 160, 162 Papoulas, Leona, photograph, 163 Pappas, Angelo, Greek sheepman in Helper, 160 Pappas, Ernest K., spokesman for Greeks denounced labor agent Leonidas Skliris, 128-29 Pappas, George, photograph, 163 Pappas, Gust, Greek businessman in Helper, 159; sheepman, 160; photograph of family, 194 Pappas, James, photograph, 187 Pappasoteriou (Soteriou), Christ, Greek businessman in Bingham, 159 Pappathanasiou, Gust, Greek sheepman, 162 Pappathanasiou, Nick, Greek sheepman, 162 Pappathanasiou, Pete, Greek sheepman, 162 Paulos, Charles, Greek businessman in Magna, 159 Paulos. Gus, Greek businessman in Magna, 159 Perpetual Emigrating Fund, suits filed in probate court, 261 Peterson, Charles S., Me and Mine: The Life Story of Helen Sekaquaptewa, review by, 2 8 3 - 8 4 ; member of Committee on Historic and Cultural Sites, 354; employed on Pioneer Village-Mormon Trail project, 357; committee member recommending awards to American Association for State and Local History, 358 Peterson, Levi S., The Sound of Mountain Water, review by, 92—93 Petrakis, Father Markos, first Greek priest in Price, 147; photographs, 142, 147; photograph of Mrs., 147


Index Petrified Wood, produced in U t a h , 242 Petroleum, importance in U t a h , 2 4 6 ; exported, 250; value of manufacturing products from, 2 5 1 ; photograph of oil operations in Colorado and San J u a n rivers area, 253 Pett, Imer, manager of Bingham Mines Company, 177 Philoptochos, women's church organization, 199 Pioneer Party, number of women in, 3 Pistolas, Alex, Greek businessman in Bingham, 159 Pitchios, Peter, Greek businessman in Bingham, 159 Platis, Gus, Greek businessman in Price, 159 Platte River, description of country near, 3 1 4 - 1 5 ; description of ferry across the Upper, 316 Poland Bill, against extended jurisdiction of probate courts, 257 Politz, Tom, Greek businessman in Salt Lake City, 158 Poll, Richard D., My Life with History, An Autobiography, review by, 284-85 Polygamy, "An Industrial H o m e For Polygamous Wives," 2 6 3 - 7 5 ; anti-polygamy society established, 264; E d m u n d s Law passed, 2 6 4 ; Mrs. Rutherford B. Hayes helped promote Women's Industrial Home, 264; not mentioned specifically in Industrial Christian Home's Articles of Incorporation, 266; M o r m o n women defended, 267-68, 3 0 5 ; Manifesto issued, 2 7 3 ; number of Brigham Young's wives, 3 0 3 ; effect on women, 304; practice of marrying sisters, 304; Richard F. Burton observations of, 304—5; by n a t u r e m a n is polygamous, 305; "Moslem gloom," 305; reasons women defended, 3 0 5 ; see also Women's Christian Industrial Home Porter, Eliot, and Don D. Fowler, Down the Colorado: John Wesley Powell Diary of the First Trip Through The Grand Canyon, 1869, reviewed, 364-65 Post, Morton E., reason for passing woman suffrage bill, 14; Wyoming delegate to Congress, 14 Powell, Jay E., "Fairness in the Salt Lake County Probate Court," 256-62 Powell, Kent, employed on Pioneer VillageMormon Trail project, 357 Powers, Orlando W., candidate for United States senator, 47 Praggastis, John, Mrs. Greek school teacher, 183 Praggastis, Tom, Greek businessman in Bingham, 159 Price, Raye, " U t a h ' s Leading Ladies of the Arts," 6 5 - 8 5 ; Diggings and Doings in Park City, reviewed, 276 Prina, Larry, employee of U t a h State Historical Society, 353 Probate Court, debate over control, 2 5 6 - 5 8 ; "Fairness in the Salt Lake County Probate Court," 2 5 6 - 6 2 ; Poland Bill against extended jurisdiction, 257; powers granted other territories, 257; standard to test fairness of, 2 5 8 ; non-Mormons and nonresidents, 2 5 8 - 5 9 ; Salt Lake County Pro-

383 bate Court records used to determine fairness of courts, 2 5 8 - 6 2 ; civil suits, 259; more sympathetic with outsiders, 2 5 9 - 6 0 ; suits by Brigham Young, 260; suits by Wilford Woodruff, 2 6 0 ; suit by Orrin Porter Rockwell, 260; suit by Bill Hickman, 2 6 0 6 1 ; suits by Perpetual Emigrating F u n d , 2 6 1 ; j u d g m e n t of fairness in Salt Lake County, 262 Prohibition, law flaunted, 167; photograph of raid on bootlegger, 168 Prophet Elias (Greek Orthodox C h u r c h ) , ground-breaking ceremonies, 199; photograph, 2 0 0 ; see also G r e e k O r t h o d o x Church Pumpkin Seed Point, by Waters, reviewed, 366-67

Raikos, Evangelis, photograph, 106 R a m p t o n , Lucybeth C , Diggings and Doings in Park City, review by, 276 Rasiaskis, Zaharias, deputies attempted to arrest in connection with battle between deputies and strikers, 131 Rawlins, Joseph L., candidate for United States senator, 47 Reeder, Jr., C. A., High Road to Promontory: Building the Central Pacific (now the Southern Pacific) across the High Sierra, review by, 93—94 Reese, Owen, doctor who treated immigrants, 59 Reilly, P. T., Trail On The Water, review by, 282-83 Richards, Emily S., photograph, back cover, No. 1; defended polygamy, 2 6 7 - 6 8 , 268

fn. 12 Richards, Franklin D., favored limited woman suffrage, 25 Richards, Franklin S., attorney, 42 Richards, Lee Green, U t a h artist, 85 Ridges, Joseph H., built tabernacle organ, 67 Rizos, Alex, prescribed and provided folk cures, 150; Greek businessman in Salt Lake City, 158 Rizos D r u g Store (Salt Lake C i t y ) , photograph, 159 Roberts, Brigham H., opposed woman suffrage, 34; argument against woman suffrage, 3 5 ; photograph, 3 5 ; spoke at M a r t h a Hughes C a n n o n funeral, 4 8 ; positively asserted the "Miracle of the Gulls," 233 Rockefeller, Jr., J o h n D., labor troubles in mines owned by, 135 Rockwell, Orrin Porter, probate court suit, 260; photograph, 261 Rohrbaugh, Malcolm, The Land Office Business: The Settlement and Administration of American Public Lands, 1789—1837, reviewed, 90 Ross, Marvin C , The West of Alfred Jacob Miller (1837) from the Notes and Water Colors In the Walters Art Gallery with an account of the artist, reviewed, 87—88 Rusho, W. L., Down the Colorado: John Wesley Powell Diary of the First Trip Through the Grand Canyon, 1869, review by, 364—65


384 Salevourakis, (brothers), Greek businessmen in Price, 159 Salt Lake City, description of Greek Town, 114; description of adobe houses in, 3 2 8 ; description, 3 2 8 - 2 9 ; description of southern route from, 336—37 Salt Lake City and County Building, state officers housed in, 275; placed on National Register of Historic Sites, 355 Salt Lake County, "Fairness in the Salt Lake County Probate Court," 2 5 6 - 6 2 ; standard to test fairness of probate court, 258; nonMormons and non-residents, 258—59; probate court records used to determine fairness of court, 2 5 8 - 6 2 ; civil suits, 259; probate court more sympathetic with outsiders, 2 5 9 - 6 0 ; probate court suits by Brigham Young, 260; probate court suits by Wilford Woodruff, 260; suit in probate court by Orrin Porter Rockwell, 260; suit in probate court by Bill Hickman, 260—61 ; suits in probate court by Perpetual Emigrating Fund, 261 ; judgment of fairness in probate court, 262 Salt Lake Theatre, opened, 67 Salt Lake Valley, painting, 326; description, 326—27; crops raised in 1850, 327 Sampino, Sam, Greek sheepman, 160 Sargetakis, Joseph, photograph of Mrs. 151; photograph of family of Mrs., 158; photograph, 176 Sargetis, Theros, Greek businessman in Helper, 159; sheepman, 162 Savage, Jr., Levi, diary acquired by U t a h State Historical Society, 354 Schutz, J o h n A., and Norris Hundley, Jr., eds., The American West: Frontier & Region, reviewed, 86—87 Scott, Hector M., officer of Industrial Christian Home Association, 265 Seagull, photograph of monument, 224, 234; "Mormons, Crickets, and Gulls: A New Look At An Old Story," 2 2 4 - 3 9 ; Peter Skene Ogden noted near U t a h - I d a h o border, 2 2 5 - 2 6 ; J o h n C. Fremont noted near Great Salt Lake, 226; Mormons note attacking crickets, 230; Thomas L. K a n e stated gulls unknown in Valley before attacking crickets, 2 3 0 - 3 1 ; painting of "Miracle of the Gulls," 2 3 1 ; method of consumption of crickets, 231—32; Mormon response to, 232; first mention as a miracle, 2 3 3 ; contemporary accounts which do not mention the miracle, 233—34; harvest after miracle, 2 3 4 - 3 5 ; attacked crickets in 1849, 1850, 1855, 2 3 6 - 3 7 ; attacked crickets in Rush Valley ( U t a h ) , M a n d a n (North D a k o t a ) , M o n t a n a , Colorado, Saskatchewan, Oregon, Tooele ( U t a h ) , and Oregon, 327; reevaluation of importance in stopping crickets in 1848, 2 3 7 - 3 9 ; monument erected, 239 fn. 7 5 ; poem, 239; see also Crickets Service Industries, employment in U t a h , 246 Sessions, Patty, Mrs. noted crickets attacked crops, 228 Shafer, J. Wilson, U t a h governor attitude toward woman suffrage bill, 26

Utah Historical Quarterly Sharp, Joseph, Salt Lake County sheriff, 124 Sheep, Greek sheepman, 160; Greek sheepmen diminish, 162; problems over water, grazing rights, and stray sheep, 162; life in a Greek sheep camp, 163; description of herders, 164; life of a herder, 164-65; relationship between employer and herders, 164 Shelton, Rebecca L., officer of Industrial Christian Home Association, 265 Shuler, Nettie Rogers, 16; publication of, 16

fn. 24 Sierra Nevada Mountains, description, 3 4 5 46 Silvagni, P. O., Italian leader, 156 Silver, produced in U t a h , 242; employment in mining, 249 Silver Queen, see Engalitcheff, Susanna Bransford Emery Holmes Delitch Silverberg, Robert, Ghost Towns of the American West, reviewed, 286—87 Simeonidis, Demetrios, Greek priest, 202; photograph 202 Sioux, punishment for adultery, 304 Skedros, James, photograph, 159; Mrs. Greek school teacher, 183 Skliris, Leonidas, Greek labor agent, 115; operation of, 115-16; exacted tribute from Greek laborers, 121, 122; Bingham miners wanted him fired as U t a h Copper Company labor agent, 125; Daniel C. Jackling, vice-president of U t a h Copper Company, defended, 125; strike issue in Bingham, 127; defended himself as labor agent, 128; hired strikebreakers for the Bingham mines, 128; offered reward to anyone who could prove padrone charge, 128; denounced in newspapers, 128-29; resigned as labor agent of Bingham mines, 129; power broken, 132 Smith, Elias, photograph, 256 Smith, Gibbs M., Joe Hill, reviewed, 367-68 Smith, H. W., ruled women qualified to vote, registered Sarah Anderson, 42 Smith, John, described gulls attacking crickets, 230 Smith, Joseph, idea of a prophet, 309; description by Bernard DeVoto, 310; description by Jules Remy, 310; description by Kimball Young, 310; description by Richard Burton, 310; description by Wallace Stegner, 310 Smith, Joseph Fielding, positively asserted the "Miracle of the Gulls," 233 Smith, Melvin T., "Colorado Exploration And T h e Mormon War," 2 0 7 - 2 3 ; preservation officer of Historic Sites Survey, 354 Smyrnopoulos, Father Damaskinos, Greek priest protested discrimination against Greeks, 179 Snow, Eliza R., description, 5 ; proposed expression of gratitude to Acting Governor S. A. M a n n for passage of woman suffrage bill, 2 7 ; photographs, 28, 306 Snow, Georgia, admitted to the bar, 27 Sons of Pericles, Greek youth organization, 195 The Sound of Mountain Water, by Stegner, 92-93


Index South Pass, description of country, 3 1 9 - 2 0 ; painting of wagon train at, 3 2 1 ; description, 321-22 Souvall, William, photograph, 184; Price Greek school committee member, 184 Spinbon, Harris, died in battle between strikers and deputies, 131 Spry, William H , governor of U t a h opposed to Bingham strike, 1 2 4 - 2 5 ; called meeting in Bingham over strike, 125; sent out Greek detective to investigate Leonidas Skliris's extortion practices, 125; spoke to striking miners, 1 2 6 - 2 7 ; biography to be printed, 353 Squires, Lawrence, U t a h artist, 85 Staes, Stylian, 155; Greek businessman in Price, 159; awarded contract for water pipeline through Price Canyon, 159—60; sheep broker, 165; Greek vice-consul for Utah, Idaho, Nevada, and Wyoming, 168; rebuked countrymen, 168; arrested, 173— 74; photograph, 188 Stamatiades, Father Arteminos, Archbishop of Nablus in Jerusalem, 115; early Greek priest in Price, 115; photograph, 115 Stamoulis, Harry, Greek businessman in Magna, 159 Stamoulis, John, Greek businessman in Magna, 159 ' Stamoulis, Milt, Greek businessman in Magna, 159 Stathakos, Nicholas P., Bingham Greek community leader and banker, 127; Greek businessman in Salt Lake City, 158 Steele, John, noted crickets attacked crops, 228 Steeple Rock, description of country, 333 Stegner, Wallace, The Sound of Mountain Water, reviewed, 92—93; opinion of literature on Mormons, 300; advantages as historian, 3 0 2 - 3 ; historian of Mormonism, 3 0 2 - 3 ; Mormon "obedient group" theory, 305; humor of, 307; description of Joseph Smith, 310 Stephanopoulos, Elias, Greek priest, 202; photograph, 202 Steptoe, Colonel Edward Jenner, command in Salt Lake City, 208; unpopular with Brigham Young, 208 Stewart, Le Conte, U t a h artist, 85 Strike, George Greek businessman in Salt Lake City, 158 Strike, Louis N., Greek businessman in Salt Lake City, 158; member of Salt Lake Holy Trinity Church construction committee, 198 fn. 131 Swedes, number in Bingham (1912), 122 Sweet Water, description of country, 319, 320 Taggart, Stephen G., Mormonism's Negro Policy: Social and Historical Origins, reviewed, 362-63 Takis, Andrew, photograph of Mrs., 144 Tallas, Zack, described Bingham, 122 Tanner, George S., contribution to U t a h State Historical Society, 354; photograph, 359; recipient of U t a h State Historical Society Service Award, 360

385 Tausoulis, Pete, photograph, 199 Taylor, Calvin, brief biography, 3 1 2 - 1 3 ; "Overland to California in 1850: T h e Journal of Calvin Taylor," 3 1 2 - 4 9 ; outfit upon leaving Salt Lake City, 330 Taylor, Charles Wesley, brief biography, 313 Taylor, John Colville, owner of Charles Taylor journal, 313 Taylor Walter Scott, owner of Charles Taylor journal, 313 Teasdel, Mary, born, 75; brother and sister died, 7 5 ; first U t a h woman accepted in the French Salon, 75, 77; studied under J. T. Harwood, 7 5 ; parents, 7 5 ; training, 7 5 ; biography, 75—77; studied in New York and Paris, 7 5 - 7 6 ; painting of, 76; studied under James McNeil Whistler, 7 6 - 7 7 ; location of paintings, 77; died, 77; appointed to board of U t a h Art Institute, 77; opened private studio, 77; spent year in Holland, 77; taught at West High School, 77; U t a h artist, 85 Teasdel, S. P., died, 77; father of Mary Teasdel, 75; ruined financially, 75; wellto-do merchant, 75 Telonas, George, feud over sheep, 162; Greek sheepman, 162 Telonas, Tom, feud over sheep, 162; Greek sheepman, 162 Templeton, Alex, opinion of E m m a Lucy Gates Bowen, 74 Tenas (Htenakis), John, photograph, 166; body examined, 169; funeral, 169-70; Greeks rose up at killing, 169; witnesses to shooting, 169; murder reported in newspapers, 170; photograph of funeral, 170; account of shooting and funeral, 174 Terzich, Yanco, a director of Western Federation of Labor, 125; arrested, 131 Thatcher, Moses, candidate for United States senator, 47 Theos, Angelo, Greek sheepman, 160, 162 Theos (Theodoropoulos), Louis, officer of I W W , 122 T h u r m a n , Samuel R., attorney, 42 Tikas, Louis, Greek labor leader, 135; killed, 135; photograph, 136; photograph of funeral, 136 Tooele, smeltermen pass resolution refusing to handle ore mined by strikebreakers, 131 Tourism, importance to Utah's economy, 254 Trades, employment in U t a h , 246 Trail On the Water, by Baker, reviewed, 282-83 The Transfiguration (Greek Orthodox C h u r c h ) , consecrated, 199; photograph, 200; see also Greek Orthodox Church Transportation, employment in U t a h , 246 Tryfon, Chris, Greek businessman in Magna, 159 Tsangaris, Gus, Greek businessman in Helper, 159 Tsiboukis, Nick, photograph, 191 Tullidge, Edward W., favored woman suffrage, 24 Tyree, Charles, deputy register in Ogden Second Precinct, 41


Utah Historical Quarterly

386 U Udall, Louise, Me and Mine: The Life Story of Helen Sekaquaptewa, reviewed, 283— 84; Pumpkin Seed Point, review by, 366— 67 Union Pacific Railroad, received American Association for State and Local History Certificate of Commendation, 360 United Mine Workers, accused coal operators of inciting prejudice against Greeks, 168-69 United States Government, employment in U t a h , 247; percentage of payrolls in U t a h , 248 U t a h , women elected to U t a h State Senate and House of Representatives, 32, 3 3 ; population in 1890 and 1895, 3 6 ; photograph of Second Legislature, 4 4 ; seat in United States Senate remained vacant, 4 8 ; Greek population, 5 3 ; photograph of Ragtown, 5 5 ; Greek immigrants in, 109, 110; mass meeting in Murray to rid themselves of Greeks, 113; achieved statehood, 274; reasons for economic evolution, 246 Utah: A Students' Guide to Localized History, by Cooley, reviewed, 278—79 U t a h Commission, conducted elections in U t a h 4 1 ; supported Industrial Christian Home Association, 266; photograph, 2 7 1 ; assumed control of Women's Christian Industrial Home, 272; took possession of Christian Industrial Home, 274 U t a h Copper Company, Greek labor agent, 115 U t a h Expedition, sent to U t a h , 2 1 0 ; reached Salt Lake City, 223 U t a h Fuel Company, rivalry with independent producers, 2 4 3 ; subsidiary of Denver & Rio Grande Western Railroad, 243 U t a h Mountains, description, 330 U t a h State Historical Society, " T h e President's Report For the Fiscal Year 19691970," 3 5 0 - 6 0 ; National Endowment for the Humanities, 3 5 1 ; number of employees, 3 5 1 ; budget 1969-70, 3 5 1 - 5 2 ; revenues, 352; publications 352—53; liaison with University of U t a h institutions, 3 5 3 ; library, 3 5 3 - 5 4 ; diaries acquired by, 354; library holdings, 354; volunteer workers, 354; Historic Sites Survey activities, 354— 5 6 ; preservation program, 354—56; agreement between U t a h State Parks Commission and, 357; photographs of Eighteenth Annual Meeting, 357; Pioneer VillageMormon Trail Complex, 357; new programs, 357—58; National Endowment for the Humanities Pilot Project, 3 5 8 ; awards, 359-60 U t a h State Institute of Fine Arts, "Alice Art Collection," 8 3 ; established, 83 U t a h Territory, congressional bill for woman suffrage, 10, 24; passed woman suffrage, 10, 2 1 ; women disfranchised, 18, 29; woman suffrage in state constitution, 19; reaction to women over passage of woman suffrage bill, 2 6 - 2 7 ; "An Experiment in Progressive Legislation: T h e Granting of Woman Suffrage in U t a h in 1870," 20-30

U t a h War, "Colorado Exploration And The Mormon War," 207-23 Utley, Robert M., Frontiersmen in Blue: The United States Army and the Indian, 1848-1865, reviewed, 8 8 - 8 9

Varanakis, Mike, photograph, 184; Price Greek school committee member, 184 Vasilakis, Mihali, photograph, 109 Vaughn, C. I., superintendent of U t a h Railway Company, 1 7 1 ; stated shooting started by strikers, 171—72 Vetas, Sam, Greek businessman in Ogden, 158 Vlamakis, Spiros, helped spirit Andreas Zulis out of country, 175 Voyagis, Andonios, Greek school teacher, 183, 185; photograph, 185 Vulis, Andre, wounded and arrested, 171; see also Zulis, Andreas

w Wadley, C a r m a Lois, recipient of U t a h State Historical Society Student Award, 360 Wadsworth, William, Mormon, 329 War Sulpher Springs, description, 330 Ware, Florence, U t a h artist, 85 Wasatch (Wahsatch) Mountains, description, 323, 324, 325 Washington, women disfranchised, 18; enacted woman suffrage, 18, 19 Waters, Frank, Pumpkin Seed Point, reviewed, 366-67 Watkins, Arthur V., Enough Rope: The inside story of the censure of Senator Joe McCarthy by his colleagues — the controversial hearings that signaled the end of a turbulent career and a fearsome era in American public life, reviewed, 287—89 Watkins, T. H , The Grand Colorado: The Story of a River and its Canyons, reviewed, 285-86 Webb, Arthur P., deputy killed by Carbon County strikers, 1 7 1 ; men arrested for killing, 172; m u r d e r trail of, 173-75 Weber River, description of country, 325 Wedgwood, E. A., commander of National Guard, 125 Weggeland, T. C , doctor who treated immigrants, 59 Weilenmann, Milton L., executive director of U t a h State Department of Development Services, 351 Welch, John Woodland, recipient of U t a h State Historical Society Student Award, 360 Wells, Emmeline B., description, 5; photograph, 2 3 ; Republican candidate for U t a h Senate, 3 2 ; defended polygamy, 267—68, 268 fn. 12 West, Josephine M., defended polygamy, 267-68, 268 fn. 12 The West of Alfred Jacob Miller (1837) from the Notes and Water Colors in the Walters Art Gallery with an account of the artist, by Ross, reviewed, 87—88


Index Western Federation of Labor, called strike in Murray, 123; membership in Bingham, 123; ordered strike in Ely, Nevada, 130; sent aid to Bingham strikers, 132; unrecognized by mine operators, 132 Western Pacific Railroad, Greek labor agent, 115 Westward to Promontory: Building the Union Pacific across the plains and mountains. A pictorial documentary, by Combs, reviewed, 9 1 - 9 2 White, J. H., Bingham policeman aided Greek striker, 1 3 1 - 3 2 ; discharged, 132 White, J e a n Bickmore, "Gentle Persuaders: Utah's First Women Legislators," 3 1 - 4 9 W h i t e , L i e u t e n a n t J a m e s , accompanied George A. Johnson expedition of Colorado River, 213-15 Whitney, Orson F., champion of woman suffrage, 3 4 ; photograph, 34 Widtsoe, J o h n A., brother-in-law of E m m a Lucy Gates, 7 1 ; visited Germany, 71 Widtsoe, Leah, sister of E m m a Lucy Gates, 7 1 ; visited Germany, 71 Willcox, J. K. H., spokesman for woman suffrage, 9 - 1 0 ; member of Universal Franchise Association, 24 Williams, Burton J., ed., "Overland to California in 1850: T h e Journal of Calvin Taylor," 312-49 Wilson, Posey, prominant Wyoming resident, 13 fn. 14 Wind River Mountains, description, 319, 320 Witt, R u t h , photograph, 3 5 9 ; recipient of U t a h State Historical Society J. G r a n t Iverson Service Award, 360 Wobblies, see I W W Wollstonecraft, Mary, suffragist, 8 Woman Suffrage, "Equal Rights" ( p o e m ) , 6; photograph of Susan B. Anthony, 7; " W o m a n Suffrage in Western America," 7 - 1 9 ; Seneca Falls Convention 1848, 8; early movement, 8; objections to, 8; Colorado rejected, 9, 10; Congress submitted proposal to states, 9 ; congressional bill to give territories, 9 ; in territories, 9; Kansas rejected, 9; Nebraska rejected, 9; Oregon rejected, 9; Rhode Island rejected, 9 ; South Dakota rejected, 9 ; Washington rejected, 9; congressional bill for U t a h Territory, 10; Dakota rejected, 10; Idaho legislature rejected, 10; New Mexico legislature rejected, 10; Wyoming enacted law for, 10, 16, 2 1 ; U t a h enacted law for, 10, 16; arguments as to why it was granted in West first, 1 0 - 1 1 ; make-up of Wyoming territorial legislature that passed law for, 1 1 ; proceedings of Wyoming territorial legislature that passed law for, 1 1 ; William Bright introduced bill in Wyoming Territory for, 11, 12; reasons Wyoming legislature passed bill for, 12-16, 15 fn. 2 2 ; Wyoming legislators who passed bill for, 13 fn. 14; m a p showing states in 1896 which had, 14; m a p showing states in 1914 which had, 1 5 ; Colorado rejected bill on, 16; Nineteenth Amendment passed, 16, 19; Wyoming Democrats attempt to repeal, 17 ; Washington Territory enacted, 18; women of U t a h and Washington disfran-

387 chised, 1 8 ; California enacted, 19; Colorado state constitution contains, 19; Idaho state constitution contains, 19; National American W o m a n Suffrage Association, 19; states with in 1914, 19; U t a h state constitution contains, 19; Washington enacted, 19; Wyoming state constitution contains, 19; adopted universally, 20, 2 1 ; "An Experiment In Progressive Legislation: T h e Granting of W o m a n Suffrage I n U t a h I n 1870," 2 0 - 3 0 ; allowed in New Jersey, 2 1 ; allowed in State of Deseret, 21 ; George Q. Cannon advocate of, 2 2 ; Congress believed would eradicate polygamy, 24; E. L. T . Harrison favored, 2 4 ; Edward W. Tullidge favored, 2 4 ; William H . Hooper favored, 2 4 ; Franklin D. Richards favored limited, 2 5 ; considered by U t a h Legislature, 2 5 ; report of Legislative Committee on Elections, 2 5 - 2 6 ; given to women in U t a h Territory, 2 6 ; reaction of U t a h women to passage of, 2 6 - 2 7 ; Relief Society promotes, 2 7 ; attitude of Utahns toward adoption of, 2 8 - 2 9 ; attitude of Mormons toward, 2 9 - 3 0 Women, "Women as a Force in the History of U t a h , " by Leonard J. Arrington, 3 - 6 ; number in U t a h compared to men, 3, 4 ; exercised right of suffrage, 4 ; role played by pioneering Mormon, 4 ; " W o m a n Suffrage in Western America," by T . A. Larson, 7 - 1 9 ; "An Experiment in Progressive Legislation: T h e Granting of Woman Suffrage in U t a h in 1870," by Thomas G. Alexander, 2 0 - 3 0 ; "Gentle Persuaders: Utah's First Women Legislators," by Jean Bickmore White, 3 1 - 4 9 ; elected to U t a h State Senate, 3 2 ; deprived of vote by Edmunds-Tucker Law, 33, 3 5 ; elected to U t a h State House of Representatives, 3 3 ; experience as party workers and voters before statehood, 3 3 ; in first statewide election, 3 3 ; law granting suffrage in U t a h Territory, 3 5 ; arguments against granting suffrage, 3 6 ; act concerning employment of, 4 6 ; account of all-woman town board and w o m a n m a y o r of K a n a b , 6 1 - 6 4 ; "Magerou, T h e Greek Midwife," by Helen Zeese Papanikolas, 5 0 - 6 0 ; " U t a h ' s Leading Ladies of the Arts," by Raye Price, 6 5 - 8 5 ; see also W o m a n Suffrage Women's Christian Industrial Home, "An Industrial H o m e For Polygamous Wives," 2 6 3 - 7 5 ; photograph, 2 6 3 ; board of control, 2 6 8 ; leased building, 2 6 9 ; occupants ( 1 8 8 7 ) , 2 6 9 ; admission requirements liberalized, 2 7 0 ; occupants ( 1 8 8 8 ) , 2 7 0 ; c o n structed, 2 7 2 ; description of building, 2 7 2 ; project failed, 2 7 2 - 7 3 ; U t a h Commission assumed control of building, 2 7 2 ; closed, 2 7 3 ; officers of Association protest closing, 2 7 3 ; Utah Legislature petitioned Congress for building as public school, 2 7 3 ; alterations, 2 7 4 ; state offices in, 2 7 4 ; family hotel. 2 7 5 ; location, 2 7 5 ; sold at auction, 2 7 5 ; see also Polygamy Wood, R u t h W., in charge of Women's Industrial Home, 269 Woodruff, Wilford, probate court suits by, 260


388 Woolley, Naomi, member of Committee on Historic and Cultural Sites, 354 Woolley, Roland, gift to U t a h State Historical Society from Mr. and Mrs., 353 World W a r I, activities of Greeks during, 153—56; casualties, 156 Wright, A. B., U t a h artist, 85 Wright, J o h n C , member U t a h House of Representatives, 25 Wyoming, adopted woman suffrage, 10, 2 1 ; make-up of legislature that passed woman suffrage law, 1 1 ; population in 1870, 12; Democrats attempt to repeal, 17; woman suffrage in state constitution, 19

Yanopoulos, Panayiotis, Greek school teacher, 183, 185; photograph, 185 Young, Ann Eliza Webb, photograph, 306 Young, Augusta Adams, photograph, 306 Young, Brigham, initiated cooperative movement, 2 1 ; relieved as governor of U t a h Territory, 210; probate court suits by, 260; photographs, 261, 303, 3 0 6 ; interviewed by Richard Burton, 3 0 0 ; number of wives, 3 0 3 ; photograph of some of wives, 306; description by Richard Burton, 3 1 0 - 1 1 ; description by Bernard De Voto, 3 1 1 ; description by Stanley Hirshson, 311 Young, Clara Chase Ross, photograph, 306 Young, Clara Decker, photograph, 306 Young, Eliza Burgess, photograph, 306 Young, Eliza Roxey Snow, see Snow, Eliza R. Young, Emily Dow Partridge, photograph, 306 Young, Emmeline Free, photograph, 306 Young, Harriet Amelia Folsom, photograph, 306 Young, Harriet Barney, photograph, 306 Young, Harriet Cook Campbell, opinion of Brigham Young on ability to hold office of sheriff, 2 7 ; photograph, 306 Young, Kimball, opinion of apostate Mormon historians, 3 0 2 ; description of Joseph Smith, 310

Utah Historical Quarterly Young, Lorenzo Dow, Mrs. noted crickets attacked crops, 227, 228 Young, Lucy Bigelow, attended International Council of Women in London, 72; photograph, 306 Young, Lucy Decker, photograph, 306 Young, Mahonri, U t a h artist, 85 Young, Margaret Pierce, photograph, 306 Young, M a r t h a Bowker, photograph, 306 Young, Mary Ann Angell, photograph, 306 Young, Mary V a n Cott, photograph, 306 Young, Miriam Works, photograph, 306 Young, N a a m a h Kendall Jenkins Carter, photograph, 306 Young, R. T., sheriff murdered Greek striker, 169; murder trial dismissed, 174 Young, Saraph, believed first woman to vote in U t a h , 27 Young, Susan Snively, photograph, 306 Young, Zina Diantha Huntington, photograph, 306

Z a h a r o g i a n n i s , D e m e t r i o s , G r e e k school teacher, 183 Zane, Margaret D., officer of Industrial H o m e Association, 265 Zaros, George, photograph, 105 Zeese, George, Greek businessman in Helper, 159; awarded contract for water pipeline through Price Canyon, 1 5 9 - 6 0 ; K u Klux K l a n threatened, 180; member Salt Lake Holy Trinity church construction committee, 198 fn. 131 Zoumadakis, George, Greek businessman in Spring Canyon, 159; account of Carbon County strike problems, 1 7 4 - 7 5 ; forced out of store lease, 175; helped Andreas Zulis leave country, 175 Zinc, produced in U t a h , 242 Zulakis, Mike, Webb murder trial, 173 Zulis (Zulakis), Andreas, disappeared, 172; escaped to Greece, 175; wounded, 175; see also Vulis, Andre


SPECIAL MEMBERSHIPS AND HONOREES OF THE UTAH STATE HISTORICAL SOCIETY HONORARY LIFE MEMBERS Bernice Gibbs Anderson Kate B. Carter Everett L. Cooley Harold P. Fabian Charles Kelly Nicholas G. Morgan, Sr. A. R. Mortensen Marguerite Sinclair Reusser Joel E. Ricks Horace A. Sorensen Russel B. Swensen FELLOWS Leonard J. Arrington Fawn M. Brodie Juanita Brooks Olive W. Burt C. Gregory Crampton Austin E. Fife LeRoy R. Hafen Jesse D. Jennings A. Karl Larson Gustive O. Larson David E. Miller Dale L, Morgan Wallace Stegner


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