History of Salt Lake City, Part 149

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

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We all know the history of Daniel Spencer since his return ? The public heart was deeply touched by that splendid funeral sermon which President Young preached over the mortal relics of Daniel Spencer in honor of his memory.

After his return to Salt Lake City, President Spencer resumed his duties as the administrative head of the Salt Lake Stake of Zion, which position he held to the day of his death; and here may be given a brief historical exposition of this stake and its administration in the organic growth of our city and Territory.

At the organization of the stake, he was, under the First Presidency and Twelve, made the spir- itual head of the entire colony ; and under his administration Salt Lake grew up several years be- fore its incorporation under the civie government. At that time the president of the stake occupied something like the position of the mayor of the inchoate ccity, and chief justice of the Church. All cases were tried under him, in the court of the High Council, he sitting with his counselors as pre- siding judge; and not only did this court adjudicate all the differences arising between members of the Church, but the gentile emigrants to California, on their arrival in Salt Lake City (or Stake), brought their difficulties before this court for equitable settlement. It is to be observed that, in 1849, there was no courts of any kind to which the "gold-finders " could bring their difficulties after they left the Missouri River until they reached this stake of Zion, where a court of justice of the Mormon Church existed, over which Daniel Spencer presided. Strange as it may seem in his- tory, many of the Gentile emigrants brought their cases for adjudication before this court, some of them involving tens of thousands of dollars; and with such equity did Danicl Spencer administer justice that the Californian emigrants very generally conceded that they obtained more equitable settlements than they would have done by litigation in the courts. In their "letters home," pub- lished in American and English papers, may be found often acknowledgments of this kind from the gold seekers of 1849-50. Two other instances, of a later date, may be toll in closing this sketch.

One of the most influential of the bishops of the Southern settlements got many thousand dollars into the debt of Joseph Nounnan, a Salt Lake banker; and such was Nounnan's confidence in the ecclesiastical court over which Daniel Spencer presided, that he brought suit against the bishop in that court in preference to going to law. 'The trial occupied one hour and a half, when decision was rendered that the bishop should pay the full amount within twenty-eight days, or be

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HISTORY OF SALT LAKE CITY.

suspended from his bishopric. At the close the banker tendered his thanks to the court and offered a liberal pecuniary present to the members, which were declined, for suits in this court were without costs. Another case involving some $4,500 occurred between Mr. Ellis, a Salt Lake City merchant, and an influential Mormon. Ellis took his case to the same court and recovered his entire claim

Daniel Spencer died December 8th, 1868, aged 74.

JOHN C. CUTLER.

John C. Cutler was born February 5th 1846, in Sheffield England. He is the son of John Cutler and Elizabeth Robinson His father was an edge tool manufacturer; and both father and mother were Methodists ; in the year 1857, his father joined the Mormon Church and came to Utah, remaining until the year 1860, when he returned to England to try to bring on his family. InApril, 1864, his father, mother and six children (including himself ) left England for Utah, arriving here in October, having crossed the Plains by ox team. The subject of this sketch, when a little over twelve years of age, was offered a situation with S. & J. Watts & Co. of Manchester, England, where he remained clerking until 1864, and during this time, being away from his relatives, he learned economy and dependence upon himself. The day after arriving in Utah he, with his brother (now the Bishop of Lehi) and his father commenced digging beets, carrots and potatoes on shares, and digging on what is called the Church Canal to pay their assessment for water on a small farm that they bought in East Mill Creek, and John C. continued at such work until the fall of 1865. When Thomas Taylor, the merchant, offered him a position to clerk for him, he started back with Mr. Taylor to Sweetwater, and assisted in bringing in the last company of emigrants that year, and a stock of goods, which was disposed of in Salt Lake City, and the following season went to New York and St. Louis to assist as purchasing agent for another stock of goods, and continued clerk- ing for him until 1871, when he was taken into partnership. In 1876 the partnership war dissolved by mutual consent, Mr. Taylor continuing the business. Shortly afterwards John C. Cutler took the agency of the Provo Woolen Mills, President Brigham Young kindly renting a portion of the Old Constitution building to him at a nominal rent, as he wished to encourage the enterprise. The sales of goods the first year amounted to twenty-eight thousand dollars, and from then they steadily increased until 1884, when the sales amounted to the sum of one hundred and fifty thousand dol- lars. In 1884 the company thought to increase their sales by adopting another method, and took their agency away from him, Finding that their sales decreased, they again, in 1885, offered him the agency. He then associated himself with his brother Joseph G. Cutler, under the firm name of Joseph G. Cutler & Brother, as ag ents of the Provo Woolen Mills, and though their connection with their customers had been broken, they sold about a hundred thousand dollars' worth of goods. In August, 1885, John C. Cutler purchased a portion of the Old Constitution Building, 27 feet front by 124 feet deep, and in the spring of 1886, having remodelled the store and made it one of the finest on that block, the firm of John C. Cutler & Brother moved into it. They have also added to it a tailoring establishment, which has proved quite a success.

In August, 1883, John C. Cutler was elected county clerk of Salt Lake County for the unex- pired term. In 1884 he was re-elected for the term of two years, and has just been nominated by the county convention county clerk for the coming election in August, 1886.

As a county officer it may be affirmed that Mr. Cutler possesses the entire confidence of the public, both as to his integrity and ability.

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LEONARD W. HARDY.

Leonard Wilford Hardy, one of the earliest of our city officers and a presiding bishop of the Church, was born in Bradford, Essex County, Massachusetts, on the 31st day of December, 1805. and was baptized into the Church on the 2d of December. 1832, by Apostle Orson Hyde. He was soon afterwards ordained an elder and began to labor in the ministry. On the 6th day of Decem- ber, 1844, in company with Apostle Wilford Woodruff and wife, Milton Holmes, Dan Jones and wife, and Hyrum Clark and wife, Elder Hardy went on board the John R. Skiddey and sailed for Liverpool to fill a mission to England. He labored for a while in the Manchester Couference, and afterwards took charge of the Preston Conference. At Preston he was attacked with small pox, but was healed through the administration of the elders. On the 19th of November, 1845, he took passage for his return to New York.

On the return of the Pioneers to the Valley in 1848, Wilford Woodruff was sent to Boston to gather up the remainder of the Saints in the Eastern States. Elder Woodruff, leading the last com- pany himself towards the Rocky Mountains, was joined by Elder Hardy and his family at Boston, who left there on the 9th of April, 1850, with a hundred Saints, and in the organization of the com- pany on the frontier, Elder Hardy was appointed captain of the first fifty. The cholera visited all the traveling camps that season, and Elder Hardy was attacked by the disease, but the administra- tion of the elders again preserved him. After his arrival in the Valley he was ordained a bishop on the 7th of April, 1856, and called to preside over the Twelfth Ward, and afterwards also over the Eleventh Ward. In October, of the same year, he was ordained one of the presiding bishops of the Church. In 1870 he went on a mission to his native State, Massachusetts. Ile served the city in various capacities. On the organization of the municipal government he was appointed captain of police, and his services were rendered without pay. He was elected a member of the city council in 1859. and again in 1862 and 1864. During the latter period of Edward Hunter's presi- dency, Bishop Hardy, as his first counselor, was really the acting presiding bishop, his good old chief relying on him with the utmost confidence. Bishop Hardy was an honest man, and those who knew him most valued him for his sterling qualities and character. The Salt Lake Herald of August Ist, wrote as follows on his death :

" Last evening, at about 8 o'clock, we received the following sad telephone message :

"' Bishop Hardy passed peacefully away at 7 p. m.'

" Hardly a year has passed since the knell was sounded for Bishop Hunter, which seems to have been the forerunner of many others of his class so soon to follow. We now have to chronicle the death of one of Salt Lake's leading citizens, and a trusty, good man. The death of Bishop Hardy leaves a big void, for such men cannot easily be found. Humble and retiring in all his movements among men, never courting position, but never shrinking from a single duty. A man who dropped a tear for the sufferings of others, but who faced the dangers and hardships of life with unflinching courage. Full of integrity, and a true friend, he was known by almost the entire adult population of the 'Territory, and we think it may be truly said of him-to know him was to love him.

" Bishop Hardy seemed to be enjoying excellent health until the first day of July, when he re- ceived a slight stroke of paralysis, affecting his entire right side and depriving him of his speech. Since then he has had several severe attacks of the same affliction, but so strong was his hold upon vitality that it seemed to be a hard struggle for him to finally give up to what he must have known was his death warning. Last Friday fears were entertained for his life, but he rallied again Saturday and would drive his own team down to his farm a little south of this city, and seemed to be in the best of spirits. Saturday night about 12 o'clock he suffered another attack, and Sunday morning found him exhausted and unable to speak; Sunday noon he walked to the outside door of his dwelling and looked out upon his farm ; again, just before evening, with the help of two of his sons, he hobbled to the door, gently pushed the wire screen away and took a long, fond gaze at all the familiar surroundings of his peaceful home, and with one last look at the setting sun his head fell upon his breast and he was taken to his bed to rise no more."

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HISTORY OF SALT LAKE CITY.

JOHN KIRKMAN.

John Kirkman, one of the members of the present city council of Salt Lake City, was born in Manchester, England, November Ist, 1830. He is the son of Henry Kirkman and Sarah Holmes. In 1836, his parents moved to Dublin, where his father put up some of the first steam-power looms worked in that city. Having accomplished this and set them going the family returned to Manchester.

Councilor Kirkman's own business when he was a boy was in calico printing and weaving. He worked for the firm of Woolley & Sons until he left England. He came into the Mormon Church in Manchester, in 1849, and was a leader of the Manchester choir for five years. He emi- grated to America in November, 1855, and arrived in Salt Lake City October, 1856, having crossed the plains in John Bank's company. He settled in Nephi, Juab County, immediately on his arrival, and on the 13th of December, 1856, he was married to Elizabeth Jackson, a native of Manchester, who came in Edward Martin's handcart company. In the year 1860, he moved to San Pete County, and settled at Moroni. There he taught school two or three years, and about the year 1866 he was appointed county treasurer. At the organization of the city council of Moroni, he was elected city recorder, which position he held till he moved to Salt Lake City in 1871. He was commissioned notary public for San Pete County, by Governor Durkee and he also held the position of post- master for Moroni. After his removal to Salt Lake City he was appointed by the presiding bishop one of the principal clerks of the Tithing Office, his labors being in the receiving and disbursing de- partment, in which position he still remains. At the last municipal election of Salt Lake City, in February, 1886, John Kirkman was elected to the city council as councilor from the first precinct.

APPENDIX.

HISTORY OF SALT LAKE CITY.

Thus commenced journalism in Utah ; and the News is itself an example how almost utterly the early record of a colony becomes lost in thirty or forty years, seeing that scarcely a volume of this first issue survives ; but small as it was the News in that day was almost as welcome periodically as a "letter from home" to a community so isolated from the rest of the world.

Its second volume commenced November 15th, 1851, when the paper was in- creased to double its original size and printed in bourgeois, minion and nonpareil type, and issued semi-monthly, Willard Richards being still the editor.

On the 11th of March, 1854, Willard Richards died. Albert Carrington suc- ceeded him as editor of the Deseret News and the paper ran its yearly course without any special mark in its journalistic history until the period of the " Utah War," when for awhile it was published at Fillmore, but soon returned to Salt Lake City when peace was restored.

The next newspaper published in Utah was the Valley Tan. It originated at Camp Floyd, but was published in Salt Lake City. Its special mission was to make war upon the Mormon power, and from time to time reprove and criticise the acts of Governor Alfred Cumming, between whom and General Albert Sidney John- ston (it will be remembered) an irreconcilable feud had occurred over the occu- pation of Utah. The following was its prospectus and introductory paragraphs :

" Custom has made it necessary upon the event of a new paper, that the editor should present himself before the footlights of public opinion, and indicate his course and policy. We shall not trouble our readers with any lengthy disquis- ition. Our saluation shall be short and, we trust, understood.

"We have embarked in the enterprise of publishing a paper in this Valley, because we believed the interests and wants of a large portion of the people of the Territory required an exponent differing essentially from any hitherto published in their midst, that the necessity of a newspaper in its true signification was de- manded, local in its nature, catching the current of events upon its mirror and reflecting them back to the people.

" We did not come here to make war upon 'this people,' but it is our inten- tion so far as our efforts and abilities can extend, to aid in correcting abuses and errors, and particularly those relating to the administration of public affairs. We are satisfied that many exist, and in the discussion of them we shall be guided by their rules of courtesy, which should always be manifested in an open, fair argu- ment. People are appealed to through their reasoning faculties, and discussion is the legitimate means used to accomplish it ; the barrier of exclusiveness which has so peculiarly surrounded the people of this Territory, should be broken down and a more free and candid interchange of sentiment be maintained. If in develop- ing the resources of this Territory, and thus contributing to the prosperity of the people, is a matter of consideration, then all proper appliances to bring about this result should be encouraged. The spirit of exclusiveness which views a brother with a jealous eye, disturbs the harmony of the political system and creates distrust.

" This Territory is the common property of the people of the United States, and any attempt by legislation or otherwise, which seeks to violate it interferes with individual and constitutional rights. Emigration should be invited, and the

APPENDIX.

emigrant should be met, not with barricades and bloody hands, but in the spirit of friendship.

" There are questions peculiar to ' this people ' which must from necessity as- sume a legal and political aspect and we shall discuss them fearlessly and fairly.

" We design to make, so far as we are able to make, our paper eminently local, and present from week to week a faithful record of events and condition of affairs generally, thus endeavoring to present to the people, far removed from us and those at home, a true and faithful transcript, and not leave them to draw their own conclusions from the too often highly colored representations of corres- pondents.

" We shall endeavor to present to our readers a summary of interesting news generally, so far as our limited space will permit. With this declaration upon our part, we submit our case and will await the verdict.

" Our christening-Valley Tan .- This name will doubtless excite some curi- osity in the ' States ' as to what it signifies, and we will therefore make an expla- nation.

" Valley Tan was first applied to the leather made in this Territory in contra- distinction to the imported article from the States ; it gradually began to apply to every article made or manufactured, or produced in the Territory, and means in the strictest sense, home manufactures, until it has entered and become an indis- pensable word in Utah vernacular, and it will add a new word to the English lan- guage. Circumstances and localities form the mint from which our language is coined, and we therefore stamp the name and put it in circulation.

" Our paper .- We are not disposed, neither do we make an apology for this our first number, circumstances themselves will furnish an explanation, and if need be, a justification. The train containing our materials arrived last Saturday, boxes had to be opened, press set up, etc. Without stands, and short of cases, we used boxes, and in some instances the floor, a very uncomfortable condition of things, but which our compositors had the backbone to accomplish, so that it can readily be understood the confusion of affairs we are in and the disabilities we labor under.

Our frontispiece, looks naked and blank, but it was the best we could do, and if its bleakness strikes the eye of the critical observer, let him charitably conclude that we are in the Rocky Mountains, and ' pass our imperfections by.'

"Our paper is not as large as we have been used to, or as we intended, but our re- mote distance from the States, requires that we should economize. In this connec- tion we will state that we are prepared to execute plain job work and blanks at reasonable prices."

The Valley Tan indirectly gave birth to the Mountaineer. The antagonism to the Mormon Church required a bold and brilliant advocate to take up for the community the gauntlet thrown down by the attachees of Camp Floyd, and Gen- eral James Ferguson and Mayor Seth M. Blair were the most fitting men for the work and the times. Ferguson was a man of capacious intellect, a brilliant writer and a gallant soldier, who was as ready to defend his people with his weapon as with his pen ; and Blair, who was one of General Sam Houston's Texas Rangers, and the first U. S. district attorney of Utah, was a compeer every whis worthy of

HISTORY OF SALT LAKE CITY.

his dashing journalistic brother. Undoubtedly Ferguson and Blair gave for awhile spirit and progress to Utah journalism, but with the evacuation of Camp Floyd, and the death of the Valley Tan, the Mountaineer lost its mission, there being no longer an enemy in the field to fight.

The arrival of the California Volunteers soon repeated the journalistic neces- sities of the days of Camp Floyd.

On the 20th of November, 1863, the first number appeared of The Union Vedette, published, as announced, " by officers and enlisted men of the Califor- nia and Nevada Territory Volunteers. " Its prospectus follows :

"Salutatory .- In the wide sea of newspaper literature, the launching of another bark whose tiny sails will woo the variable and ever shifting breeze of popular favor is, we are aware, a matter of little moment to the great buzzing world on either con- tinent. In these latter days of improvement, enterprise and civilization, the great lever of human society, lifting it up to a higher point, and the mighty regulator of man's doings is a free, untrammeled, unwarped and independent press. Throughout the civilized world, it is the boast of the nineteenth century, that it has spread its broad pinions until the silver linings of its thousand wings shed brightness over all the land, and its Briarian arms penetrate every village and al- most every hamlet. ' As the waters cover the sea ' so does the press cover both great continents, wherever civilization and progress have stamped the character of nations, circling the world with its halo of light, and life and joy. On this wide ocean, among the multitude of crafts which dot its surface, do we to-day launch our little vessel, hoping for gentle breezes on our onward course, and trusting in a conscious rectitude of purpose, to keep us clear of the shoals and breakers and shipwreck which threaten such undertakings on every hand.

" Unimportant as is our appearance and modest our page, 'a decent respect for the opinion of mankind,' as well as established usage, makes it incumbent on us to make our bow to the great public and ' declare the motives which impel us to our course.' Firstly, then, we find here a wide field for the independent efforts of the journalist. We are dwelling in the heart of an organized Territory of the United States, boasting a population of 80,000 souls, who possess but one general news- paper from which to gather news and sentiments, and through which they can communicate with the outer world. This fact, in itself, is an anomaly, and has no parallel within the boundaries of the United States. Secondly, the Gentile ( so- called ) portion of the community-including the military within this district- has no medium of publicly setting forth its opinions, or communicating its thoughts, correcting misapprehension, or rebutting misrepresentation, either at home or abroad. The want of a press for these and similar purposes, has been sorely felt since the troops arrived in these valleys, and we propose to supply the want so far as our ability and limited space will permit.

" To every rightly constituted mind it has been a source of regret that the relations existing between the mass of the people and the military in Utah, have not been of either a cordial or amicable nature. The misrepresentation which has brought about this untoward state of feeling between Mormon and Gentile- which has led the former to believe that the latter were their chosen and appointed enemies and persecutors -that they were but the representatives of a government

APPENDIX.

seeking the destruction and annihilation of the Mormons for opinion's sake-and all such trash it will be our province to attempt to correct. The efforts of evil dis- posed persons to bring about conflict in this Territory, between the military and the civil inhabitants, the appeals of ambitious, crafty, designing men, to wean the people from the government, that their own ends may be subserved-who con- stantly vilify and abuse the officers of the best government with which this or any other people was ever blessed-it will be our duty to expose. The bold denuncia- tion and the covert sneer uttered against the nation, more becoming a foreign foe or the open rebel, than those who here enjoy the protection, care and blessings of the freest, greatest and most paternal government on earth-grate harshly on the ear, and come not, we would fain believe, from the heart of the people. The teachings which border on treason, if indeed they fill not the measure of iniquity, the whisperings of some and the defiant speech of others, appealing to the pas- sions, prejudices, and religious fervor of the multitude, seeking to wean them from loyalty to the nation, we trust have found no deep abiding place in the mind and heart of the great mass of the people of Utah. If they have, we propose to calmly argue the question with them. If, in excitement and mispresentation, they have indeed been led astray, we ask them to hear us in the quiet and peace of their own retired homes. We propose to appeal from 'Cæsar drunk to Cæsar sober' -from an excited and impassionate populace to the calm reflection of a thinking, reasoning community, from the teachings and narrow prejudices of scribes and el- ders, high or low, to the plain common sense of plain, common, honest men. For those bold, bad men-if such there be-who, to compass their own ends, seek to mislead the multitude-as to the intentions and wishes of the Government and its representatives, civil and military, in Utah, we have little respect and far less care ; but for the mass of the people whom we know to be honest and sin- cere, though mistaken, and it may be, prejudiced, we have both. To them we propose to talk in our own plain, homely way. With their domestic relations and interior life we have naught to do, other than as good citizens, we may entertain and, on proper occasions, properly express our own opinions on any subject touch- ing the general weal. While as soldiers, we came not to make war on this people, neither in this enterprise is it our design to intrude upon their every day life.

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History of Salt Lake City, Part 149

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