History of Salt Lake City, Part 123

Author: Tullidge, Edward Wheelock
Publication date: 1886
Publisher: Salt Lake City, Star printing company
Number of Pages: 1194

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ERASTUS SNOW. .

The Hon. Erastus Snow, who so long and ably represented Southern Utali in the Legisla- ture, was, with Orson Pratt, the first of the Mormon Pioneers who set foot in the Valley of the Great Salt Lake. He is very properly also classed in our history as the founder of Southern Utah -that is of those settlements and counties comprised in what at the outset was styled our Utah " Dixie."

Briefly touching his origin : Erastus Snow was born at St. Johnsbury, Caledonia County, Vermont, November 9th, 1818. His father's name was Levi Snow ; and his family were among the early settlers of the Massachusetts colony. His grandmother on his mother's side was of the Mason family.

When the subject of this sketch was fourteen years of age, Mormonism came into his part of the country. His elder brothers, William and Zerubbabel, were the first of the family to embrace it ; shortly after Orson Pratt and Lyman E. Johnson, in 1832, visited his father's house. While listening to Orson Pratt conversing on the Scriptures and reading and reciting the revelations given to the Prophet Joseph Smith, he says: "The Holy Ghost descended upon me, bearing witness that it was the truth, and that these men were the messengers of God. This testimony has never de- parted from me, but has often been renewed and confirmed in the experience of my life."

In the following February, 1833, young Erastus Snow went to Charleston, where he was bap- tized by his brother William, February 5d, 1833. His mother had seven sons and two daughters. All the family came into the Church excepting two of the sons and his father. His brother Zerub- babel was afterwards, in the early history of Utah, an United States judge of this Territory, and Willard Snow was a famous missionary who died while on his way to his ministry in Scandinavia, and was buried in the sea. Erastus was a preacher at the age of fifteen, being ordained as an elder under the hands of Luke Johnson, one of the first Twelve apostles. We here pass over the interval of his life up to the time of the removal of the Saints to the Rocky Mountains, continuing the nar- rative from our notes of his own words. He said :

" On the 6th of April, 1847, I took my departure from Winter Quarters with the Pioneers, headed 5

HISTORY OF SALT LAKE CITY.

by President Brigham Young, to search out the location for the Saints. For the details of this journey I must refer the reader to my private journal, or the works already published.

" Mmy interesting episodes occurred both going and returning, but among the trying and af- fevting ones was the appearance of the mountain fever among us, first attacking E. T. Benson, at our encampment at the South Pass of the Rocky Mountains on the aist of June. From one-third to one-half of our entire company were attacked with this malady before we reached the valley of the Great Salt Lake and among the number was President Brigham Young. I, myself, had a severe attack, from which, however, I recovered in about a week. This affliction detained os so, that with the labor on the roads through the Wasatch Mountains we were unable to reach the Salt Lake Val- ley until the 21st of July, when Orson Pratt and myself, of the working parties, who were explor- ing, first emerged into the Valley and viewed the site of the future city of Salt Lake; and when we ascended Red Butte, near the mouth of Emigration Canyon, which gave us the first glimpse of the blue waters of the Great Salt Lake, we simultaneously swung our hats and shouted, Hosannah! for the Spirit told us that here the Saints should find rest. After about six weeks' labor here, laying out the City and Fort, plowing and planting fields, and building eabins around the Fort block, I started with the rear camp of the Pioneers on the return trip, carly in August, and, on the last day of October, reached Winter Quarters, on the Missouri River, where I had left my family, having been about six weeks witho it tasting bread. The sweet joy of this meeting was mingled with deep grief, at the loss of a dear little daughter, Mary Minerva, who had died during my absence.

" Soon after our return to Winter Quarters there was a general stir and bustle of getting ready for starting with our families to Salt Lake Valley, and gathering our year's supply of seeds and pro- visions. Most of my oxen had perished during the winter, or had been eaten up by the Indians, aud I was under the necessity of yoking up my cows and all my young stock to work with the few oven I had left, to haul the wagons for the journey. I traveled in company with Presidents Young and Kimball and hid a very pleasant and agreeable journey, my teams holding out well and my family enjoying good health. We reached our destination with much joy.

"In the month of September, soon after our arrival in Salt Lake, I was appointed one of the presidency of the stake; and during the following winter I was called and ordained into the quorum of the Twelve Apostles, together with C. C. Rich, Lorenzo Snow and F. D. Richards, these all filling vacancies caused by the apostacy of Lyman Wight and the organization of the quorum of the First Presidency out of the quorum of the Twelve.

" This year the Perpetual Emigration Fund Company was organized, and the system of emigra- tion inaugurated, which has so largely contributed to the gathering of our people and the building up of Utah Territory. I was appointed one of the committee of three in gathering funds to put into the hands of Bishop Hunter to send back to our poor brethren, left on the Missouri River. At that time our settlements extended only to Provo on the south and Ogden on the north. We gathered about $2,000. About this time also, I participated in the organizing of the Provisional Government of the State of Deseret; and at the semi-annual conference in October, I was ap- pointed on a mission to Denmark, to open the door of the gospel to the Scandinavian people. At the same time Elder John Taylor was appointed to France. Lorenzo Snow to Italy, F. D. Rich- ards to England, with several elders accompanying each of us. We all took our departure from Salt Lake on the 19th of October. Our little party numbered about thirty elders and Mr. Kinkade, of Livingston & Kinkade, merchants, bound for St. Louis for goods.

"Most of the missionaries journeyed together till we reached St. Louis, whence we expected to take different directions through the States to visit the remnants of the Saints, remaining in the Stites and gathering means for erossing the water.

"I sailed from Boston on the 3d of April, on a Cunard steamer, for Liveipool, where I landed on the 15th ; and the following day Lorenzo Snow arrived in a sailing vessel from New York. We vis- ited many of the churches in England, Scotland and Wales. During the next four weeks I re- ceived miny contributions in aid of our missions. On the Ist of June, 1850, I landed in Copen- hagen, the capital of Denmark, in company with G. P. Dikes and John Forsgreen-the former an American and the latter a native of Sweden. We were met at the wharf by P. O. Hansen, a native of that eity, who had embraced the gospel in America, and had left Salt Lake with us, but had made his way in advance of us to his native land."

We pass over the detail of Apostle Erastus Snow's ministry among the Scandinavians, sufficing to say that he established that great misson which has done so much to people Utah. He returned to Salt Lake City and afterwards was sent by his quorum to preside over a stake of the Church

GEORGE A. SMITH.

which was organized at St Louis, and to superintend the emigration to Utah from the western point. Since that day his great work has been in founding and developing the counties of Southern Utah, over which he has presided spiritually, and which for many years he represented in the Council branch of the Legislature.

GEORGE A. SMITH.

George Albert Smith was born in the town of Potsdam, St. Lawrence County, New York, on the 26th day of June, 1817. It may be claimed for him that he was of purely American descent, for his American-born ancestry date back to 1666. On the maternal side he was descended from the Lymans, a family of patriotic revolutionary record; and on the paternal side he was cousin to Joseph Smith the Prophet.

His cousin Joseph's seership was first brought to his attention in 1828, by a letter written to his grandfather by Joseph Smith, sen., in which was recounted several visions that the writer's son had received; and also in which letter was the remark: " I always knew that God was going to raise up some branch of my family to be a great benefit to mankind."

A subsequent letter from Joseph himself, in which he declared that the sword of the Almighty hung over that generation, and could only be averted by repentance and works of righteousness, made a profound impression upon the mind of George A., and elicited from his father the declaration that "Joseph wrote like a prophet." An investigation of the Book of Mormon resulted in the conver- sion of his parents, and the consequent bigoted opposition of their neighbors. One of these, an influ- ential and wealthy man offered young Smith,-if he would leave his parents and promise never to become a Mormon,-a seven years' education, without expense, and a choice of profession when his education should be complete. His answer was worthy an everlasting record : "The commandment of God requires me to honor my father and mother." He did so honor them as to fully embrace their faith, and was baptized in their presence, September 10th, 1832. Concerning events immediately following, his journal states :

" My father sold his farm in Potsdam, and on the Ist of May, 1833, we started for Kirtland, Ohio, the second gathering place of the Saints, where we arrived on the 25th, having traveled 500 miles. We were heartily welcomed by cousin Joseph. This was the first time I had ever seen him; he conducted us to his father's house.

" I was engaged during the summer and fall in quarrying and hauling rock for the Kirtland temple, attending masons, and performing other duties about its walls. The first two loads of rock taken to the temple ground were hauled from Standard's quarry by Harvey Stanley and myself.

"In consequence of the persecution which raged against Joseph, and the constant threats to do him violence, it was found necessary to keep continued guard, to prevent kis being assassinated. During the fall and winter I took part in this service, going two miles and a half to guard."

Although but seventeen years of age, he was a member of the company that went up to " re- deem Zion" in Jackson County, Mo. He started with " Zion's Camp," May 5th, 1834, and re- turned on the 4th of August, of the same year, having traveled about 2,000 miles in three months, mostly on foot.

On the Ist of March, 1835, he was ordained a member of the first quorum of seventies, and on the 5th day of May, following, in company with Lyman Smith, started on a mission through Ohio, Pennsylvania and New York. They returned in November, having traveled 1,850 miles on foot, without purse or scrip, holding numerous meetings, and making several converts.

From this time forward his life was a series of missions, and adventures incident thereto, up to April, 1839, when he was ordained one of the Twelve apostles, on the corner-stone of the temple, at Far West.

He was a member of the quorum of the Twelve who went on a mission to England in 1839-40,

HISTORY OF SALT LAKE CITY.

traveling and preaching in the counties of Lancaster, Chester, Stafford, Hereford, Worcester, and Gloucester, and preaching the first Morinon sermon in London.

Soon after his return, in 1841, he was married to Miss Bethsheba W. Bigler, and after a tem- porary settlement in Zarahemla, Iowa, became a resident of Nauvoo. He was thereafter engaged in mission work in various States until recalled, in 1844, by the martyrdom of the Prophet.

He was with the Twelve in their exodus from Nauvoo, and with the Pioneers in their journey from Winter Quarters to the Rocky Mountains. He planted the first potato that was put into the ground in Salt Lake Valley, and to the day of his death was permanently identified with the various projects for settling and redeeming the valleys of Deseret

When the Provisional government of the State of Deseret was erected, he was chosen a mem- ber of the State Senate, and at that early dite presented a bill concerning the construction of a national railroad across the continent.

In speaking of his mission to Jerusalem, which, in company with Lorenzo Snow, Albert Car- rington, Feramorz Little, and others, he accomplished in 1873, it will be necessary to explain that one of the most peculiar and characteristic phases of the Mormon religion is the linking of the des- tiny of this modern Israel, raised up by Joseph Smith, with the destiny of ancient Israel. The Jews of course are the proper representatives of the former, the Mormons of the latter.

As observed elsewhere, the Mormons themselves are supposed to be the literal seed of Abraham "mixed with the Gentiles," but now "in these last days " gathered by the mysterious providence of the House of Isael into the " new and everlasting covenant."

In 1840, Apostle Orson Hyde performed the first mission to Jerusalem, and thirty-two years later this second mission was appointed. Here is the commission :

"SALT LAKE CITY, U. T., October 15, 1872.

" PREST. G. A. SMITH :

" Dear Bro :- As you are about to start on an extensive tour through Europe and Asia Minor, where you will doubtless be brought in contact with men of position and influence in society, we desire that you observe closely what openings now exist, or where they may be effected, for the in- troduction of the gospel into the various countries you shall visit.

"When you go to the land of Pale tine, we wish you to dedicate and consecrate that land to the Lord, that it may be blessed with fruitfulness preparatory to the return of the Jews in fulfillment of prophecy and the accomplishment of the purposes of our Heavenly Father.

" We pray that you may be preserved to travel in peace and safety ; that you may be abun- dantly blessed with words of wisdom and free utterance in all your conversations pertaining to the holy gospel, dispelling prejudice and sowing seeds of righteousness among the people.

" BRIGHAM YOUNG, " DANIEL H. WELLS."

These missionaries from the modern to the ancient Zion, visiting the President of the United States and President Thiers of France on their way, reached Palestine in March, 1873. They vis- ited the most famous places of Bible mention, and also the places made famous by the exploits of the crusaders. The Jerusalem missionaries returned to Utah in July, 1873.

Upon the death of Heber C. Kimball, the elevation of George A. Smith to the second place in the Mormon Church, thus made vacant, was pronounced by the people of his faith an honor wor- thily bestowed.

The construction of the temple at St. George furnished the occasion for this apostle to unite with Brigham Young in the administration of ordinances in "high places," thus fitly crowning the labors of his life. On his tablet might thereafter be written, " It is finished."

Shortly after his return from St. George he was prostrated with a sickness which finally resulted in his death, September Ist, 1875. Although, mortally considered, he has passed away, in the hearts of the Mormon people George A. Smith will never die.

WILLARD RICHARDS.

PARLEY P. PRATT.

Parley Parker Pratt was born in Burlington, Otsego County, New York, April 12th, 1807. He was a distinguished member of the first quorum of the Twelve, and, for his marked Hebraic char- acter and tone, was counted the Isaiah of his people. He was one of the first missionaries of the Mormon faith, and some of his earliest writings were pronounced by the Prophet Joseph standard works of the Church. One of the marked circumstances of his life was the bringing of President John Taylor into the Church while on his mission to Canada and between these two distinguished apostles there existed a lifelong friendship. He was on a mission to England with a majority of his quorum in 1840, and was the first editor of the Latter-day Saints Millennial Star. He was also left in charge of the British Mission when President Young and the majority of the Twelve returned to Nauvoo. During the period of the exodus while the Saints were at Winter Quarters, Parley l'. Pratt, Orson Hyde and John Taylor were selected by their quorum to go speedily to Great Britain to set the churches in order and bring to a sharp account the " Joint Stock Company" which cer- tain presiding elders in that mission had formed professedly for the emigration of the Saints to America, but which resulted in the misuse of the people's funds. Having dissolved the Joint Stock Company, and settled the people's accounts as equitably as the case permitted, and restored the British churches to their wonted stability, these apostles returned to America, expecting to journey to the mountains in the spring of 1847 with the pioneer company, which, however, had just started at the moment of their arrival. Presidents Taylor and Pratt quickly followed with the companies that settled the valleys in 1847, and upon their shoulders principally rested the responsibility of the colony until the return of the First Presidency with the body of the Church from Winter Quarters, in September, 1848. During the winter of 1847, Parley and others explored Utah Lake and Valley, Cedar Valley and Tooele Vailey. In March, 1851, he left Great Salt Lake City for the Pacific, on a mission to its islands and coasts, and returned from San Francisco in May, 1853. He took a sec- ond mission to the Pacific in May, 1854, and made his headquarters at San Francisco. George Q. Cannon was his principal assistant on these missions, from which he returned to Salt Lake City in August, 1855. In September, 1856, he started on a mission to the Eastern States to labor in unison with Apostle John Taylor, who was at that time presiding over the Eastern churches, and publishing the Mormon.

In the fifty-first year of his age, while traveling in Arkansas, he was assassinated. An autobi- ography of this distinguished apostle, edited by his son, assisted by President John Taylor, has been published, from which may be gathered those matters of interest concerning his life and labors ; we have already culled numerous pages in Chapter LXXXVII. on our authors and poets, giving the first niche of fame to Parley P. Pratt.

WILLARD RICHARDS.

On the first of December, 1836, Doctor Willard Richards was baptized at Kirtland, under the hands of President Brigham Young, in the presence of Heber C. Kimball and others, who had spent the afternoon in cutting the ice to prepare for the baptism, He was born at Hopkintown, Middlesex County, Mass., June 24, 1804. At the age of ten years he removed with his father's family to Richmond, in the same State, where he witnessed several sectarian revivals and offered himself to the Congregational church in that place, at the age of seventeen, having previously passed through the painful ordeal of conviction and conversion according to that order.

In the summer of 1835, while in the practice of medicine, near Boston, the Book of Mormon, which had been left with a relative at Southborough, accidently fell in his way, which was the first he

HISTORY OF SALT LAKE CITY.

had seen or heard of the Latter-day Saints, except the scurrilous reports of the public prints, which amounted to nothing more than that "a boy named Jo Smith, somewhere out West, had found a Gold Bible." He opened the book without regard to place, and totally ignorant of its design or contents, and before reading half a page, declared that God or the devil has had a hand in that book, for man never wrote it;" read it twice through in about ten days, and so firm was his conviction of the truth, that he immediately commenced settling his accounts, selling his medicine, and freeing him- self from every ineumbrance, that he might go to Kirtland, seven hundred miles west, the nearest point he could hear of a Saint, and give the work a thorough investigation ; firmly believing that if the doctrine was true, God had some greater work for him to do than peddling pills. In October, 1836, he arrived at Kirtland, where he gave the work an untiring and unceasing investigation, until the day of his baptism.

Hle was an intimate friend and close companion of Joseph. He was in the same prison, side by side with the two martyred prophets, when they fell under a shower of bullets ; and a bare drop of his own blood mingled with theirs on that memorable occasion. The blood of his brethren that flowed copiously around him, and the mangled body of his fellow survivor, Elder John Taylor, and the hideous spectacle of painted and armed murderers, found in Dr. Willard Richards, on that occasion, an embodiment of presence of mind, of quickness of conception, and boldness of execu- tion, that will never be forgotten. During that catastrophe and the emergency into which the church was suddenly thrown, Dr. Richards felt the burthen of giving direction to the affairs of the church in Hancock County, in consequence of the absence of the Twelve Apostles. Though standing in the midst of the murderous mob at Carthage, with the mangled bodies of his martyred friends, and that of Elder Taylor, under his charge, his letters and counsels at that time indicated great self- command and judgment. His ability was happily commensurate with such an occasion.

In the Spring of 1848, he was unanimously elected, by the voice of the whole church, as sec- ond councilor to the first President; eleven years previously he was chosen by revelation, through the Prophet Joseph, to be one of the Twelve Apostles, and ordained accordingly, at Preston, Eng- land, while on a mission to that country.

In the Spring of 1847, he was enrolled in the memorable band of pioneers, under President Young, that first marked out a highway for the emigrating Saints to the Great Salt Lake, He sub- mitted to the hardships and privations of that rugged enterprise, in common with his associates.

As a civil officer, he served as secretary to the government of the State of Deseret, and did the greatest share of the business of the secretary of the Territory of Utah after its organization, and presided over the council of the Legislative Assembly for about the same period.

He was also postmaster for Salt Lake City up to the day of his death (which occurred on the 11th of March, 1854), an efficient member of the emigrating fund company, general historian of the Church and founder of the Deseret News. Much of the action of his life's history, with letters and official documents from his pen, is contained in the body of our book.

NEWEL K. WHITNEY.

The first presiding bishop of the Church in Utah was Newel Kimball Whitney, and though he died in the early days of our city, his name is too historical to be omitted in these sketches.

Newel K. Whitney was born February 5th, 1795, in Marlborough, Windham County, Ver- mont. At the time when the Prophet Joseph Smith established Zion in Kirtland Whitney was a Kirtland merchant, of the firm of Gilbert & Whitney. He and his wife, so familiarly known in Mor- mon lustory as "Mother Whitney," belonged to that branch of the Campbellites of which Sidney Rig- don was the local head. Parley P'. Pratt and other elders visited Kirtland in the fall of 1830, and converted Rigdon and his church, to which Parley himself had formerly belonged.

Bishop O. F. Whitney has given a very complete sketch of his grandfather's life in the Con- tributor. We cinnot follow it in full, but will quote the closing pages for their pertinency to polyg- amy, which is the supreme U'tah subject of to-day. He says:

NEWEL K. WHITNEY.

"We have before spoken of the friendship and intimacy existing between the Prophet and Bishop Whitney. This bond of affection was strengthened and intensified by the giving in marriage to the former of the Bishop's eldest daughter, Sarah, in obedience to a revelation from God. This girl was but seventeen years of age, but she had implicit faith that the doctrine of plural marriage, as revealed to and practiced by the Prophet, was of celestial origin. She was the first woman, in this dispensation, who was given in plural marriage by and with the consent of both parents. Her father himself officiated in the ceremony. The revelation commanding and consecrating this un- ion is in existence, though it has never been published. It bears the date of July 27, 1842, and was given through the Prophet to the writer's grandfather, Newel K. Whitney, whose daughter Sarah, on that day, became the wedded wife of Joseph Smith for time and all eternity.

"The ceremony preceded by nearly a year the written document of the revelation on celestial marriage, which was first committed to paper on July 12, 1843. But the principle itself was made known to Joseph several years earlier. Among the secrets confided by him to Bishop Whitney while they were in Kirtland, was a knowledge of this self-same principle, which he declared would yet have to be received and practiced as a doctrine of the Church ; a doctrine so far in advance then of the ideas and traditions of the Saints themselves, to say nothing of the Gentile world, that he was obliged to use the utmost caution lest some of his best and dearest friends should impute to him improper motives. No wonder he should smite himself upon the breast which treasured up his mighty secrets, and exclaim, as we are told he often did: "Would to God, brethren, I could tell you who I am, and what I know!"

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History of Salt Lake City, Part 123

Author: Tullidge, Edward Wheelock Publication date: 1886 Publisher: Salt Lake City, Star printing company Number of Pages: 1194

Author: Tullidge, Edward Wheelock
Publication date: 1886
Publisher: Salt Lake City, Star printing company
Number of Pages: 1194