History of Salt Lake City, Part 150

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

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" When we say that the primary object of sending troops to Utah last year, was the protection of the Overland Mail and Telegraph lines, we but repeat what every man of ordinary intelligence knows to be a fact; and when we add that the constant effort of some has been to array the people against the Government and the soldiers, and inculcate the erroneous idea that the latter were sent hither to persecute and destroy, we but say what the signs of the times and the present state of feeling prove, and what it were mere hypocrisy to attempt to deny. With the consciousness of stating the truth, we affirm that this bad state of feeling has not been occasioned by any intentional act of the officers of this command, and know not a single instance of oppression or wrong on the part of the troops, which has not met with the discountenance and prompt rebuke of the general in command. On the other hand, who cannot cull from recent memory, repeated acts and teachings tending to provoke difficulty, if not indeed designed to court trouble with the military authorities. But all ebullition of feeling under instances of pro-

HISTORY OF SALT LAKE CITY.

vocation, has been quelled, and the utmost leniency extended towards public ex- pressions-which were far better left unsaid.

" Without indulging in threat or menace, we feel called upon to say, that while it is the desire of the military authorities to live in peace, protect the inter- ests and advance the welfare of the people of Utah, respect for the Government and the institutions of the land, should be voluntarily accorded by one and all, high and low, and toleration for disloyal sneers is no part of the duty of the true citizen, whether official or otherwise. It is the earnest wish of every man attached to the command, to live on terms of amity and good will with the people of this Territory, so long as we shall sojourn with them ; and it were a burning shame to permit that feeling to be jeopardized by a meagre intriguing few. While, there- fore, it is not the mission of the California column in Utah, to insult, oppress, or persecute the people of these valleys, it must not be forgotton that the Nation -our own native or adopted home-is to-day struggling with a gigantic, unholy rebellion, and the duty of every good citizen to sustain by word and thought and deed our common country, is as plain as it is imperative. We say this-as we have begun our enterprise-in the best of feeling, trusting and believing that our language will not be distorted into aught that savors of threat or unkindness, but as the friendly voice of those who seek the good and prosperity of every man, woman and child in Utah, who have not voluntarily placed themselves beyond the pale of charity and friendship.

"Our first duty is to the Nation, whose preservation and advancement every good citizen holds next to his heart. Our second, in Utah, the happiness, free- dom and progress, of whose people we know to be the desire of the general com- manding and those united with him in the discharge of public duty."

A journalistic foil to the Vedette was deemed necessary in the city, and Mr. T. B. H. Stenhouse projected the Salt Lake Telegraph. Mr. Thomas G. Webber was its business manager, John Jaques its practical editor, and Stenhouse its editor- in-chief and publisher.

The very useful mission of the Telegraph was at once appreciated both by the Mormon leaders and their people. Evidently it would not do for Camp Douglas to classify and claim the Mormon people as worthy to be owned as a part of the American nation while their leaders were proclaimed unworthy and disloyal at their heart's core. This seemingly fine Gentile diplomacy of separating the Mormon " sheep from the goats," has been even more offensive to the people than to the leaders, for nearly every Mormon is an, elder of his church, which makes the dis- tinction a personal affront. It was not becoming in the Deseret News to enter the arena with the Vedette to champion the leaders, but the Telegraph seized the ready lance and expressing the ineffable scorn of the Mormon people, dubbed the folks at Camp Douglas-" Regenerators !"

But the Vedette obtained quite a lively circulation in Salt Lake City among the Gentiles and seceders ; and when it became a daily, January 5th, 1864, there was quite a sensation of triumph produced among its supporters in the city as well as among the soldiers at Camp. The Daily Union Vedette was the first daily newspaper published in Utah. Mr. Lucius A. Billings, of the Salt Lake Post Office, was its first carrier.

APPENDIX.

October 20th, 1864, there was issued the first number of the Peep o' Day, " a Salt Lake magazine of science, literature and art ;" " edited by Harrison and Tullidge ; published in the Twentieth Ward." It was the first magazine pub- lished west of the Missouri River, and was printed at the Vedette office, Camp Douglas.

The financial backers of the Peep o' Day were the Walker Brothers, John Chislett and Col. Kahn ; but through inexperience too large an edition was pub- lished and several thousand dollars capital was lost in the inception. This oc- curred at the time of the paper panic in America. Paper in Salt Lake City was worth sixty cents per pound ; and the stock of the Vedette was no longer able to supply the issues of the Peep o' Day. Even the Deseret News suspended awhile for lack of paper.

The Utah Magazine was really the offspring of the Peep o' Day with the same editors, but with a new backing, Wm. S. Godbe being its patron ; and Godbe and Harrison proprietors. This magazine ran through two series, and three volumes. The second series signified the period while it was working with a defined mission, bringing forth the "Godbeite Movement ;" both this movement and the magazine proper have been sufficiently treated in former chapters.

The Mormon Tribune (which was simply the Utah Magasine transformed) ran off its first copy on the night of January Ist, 1870, which date it bore. Its original editors were Harrison and Tullidge, with Eli B. Kelsey, business manager. William S. Godbe was its financial guardian. William H. Shearman soon after- wards became business manager and associate editor, and Kelsey and Tullidge retired.

The Daily Herald was issued on June 5th, 1870. Its size was four pages, 14×20, in five columns. E. L. Sloan may editorially be considered the founder ; Mr. William C. Dunbar was its business manager, and in this respect he was a joint founder, both of these gentlemen going into the enterprise together. The times were propitious for its start, for the Salt Lake Daily Telegraph had just been discontinued, leaving a field open for a new paper. During the latter part of its career, Sloan was the editor and Dunbar the business manager of the Telegraph. Notwithstanding the Telegraph had been moved to Ogden by counsel, these gen- tlemen sagaciously saw that a secular newspaper, conservative of the Mormon cit- izen's rights as well as supportive of the just claims of the Gentile, who had now become an influential factor in our mixed society, was needed most in Salt Lake City. This was the basic idea of Edward Sloan as a journalist. But there was also another view that made this paper a necessity. The Tribune had started and it was, it must be confessed, an anti-Church paper. 'The Herald had, therefore, the chance of a more purely journalistic mission before it, and those who six months before might have discountenanced its starting saw the then present need of the times and the surroundings ; thus the Herald started with a decidedly win- ning advantage.

On September 2d, 1870, the Semi-Weekly Herald was issued ; October 2d, 1870, the daily was enlarged to seven columns ; March 11, 1871, it was again en- larged to eight columns ; and on September 26th, 1871, it was enlarged to nine

HISTORY OF SALT LAKE CITY

columns, being then just twice the size of the first issue. On March 4th, 1880, the weekly was issued.

In 1874, in the month of July, the Herald Printing and Publishing Com- pany was incorporated, and the shares distributed somewhat, though the three original proprietors still retained a large portion of the stock. John T. Caine has been president of the company from the first, and up to 1876, when he was elected city recorder, was actively connected with the management of the paper.

The editors have been, first-Edward L. Sloan. In 1874, in the month of August, death took from the paper this man of rare journalistic genius who had founded it. He was succeeded by Mr. E. N. Fuller, the brother of the Hon. Frank Fuller, who was principal editor from August, 1874, to November, 1877. During 1871, Mr. Fuller had assisted Mr. Sloan. During a portion of 1872 and 1873, W. H. Harrington was news and telegraphic editor. Byron Groo was the first local editor on the paper, commencing with the beginning of 1873 ; and, on the the departure of Mr. Fuller for the east, Mr. Groo took the place of managing editor, which he still occupies. He is the son of Isaac Groo, a well known rep- resentative citizen, who for years served in our city council. The editor was born in Sullivan County, New York, and came with his parents to Utah in 1854. He was trained in journalism under Sloan, who took a great interest in him, for which the present editor reverences the memory of the founder of the paper. Mr. Groo possesses many good points, both as an American citizen and a journalist. He is decidedly of the secular cast, and is a staunch Democrat in his political principles.

The Woman's Exponent was established June Ist, 1872. Eliza R. Snow was its projector, and Mrs. Levi Richards, jun., its first editor. This lady, however, soon retired and Mrs. Emiline B. Wells succeeded her, and under her editorial management the Woman's Exponent has become quite popular with the Mormon people. It is published by the women of the Mormon Church, having a company organization, of which Eliza R. Snow is president. It is the official organ of the societies of Mormon women, which exist in every city and settlement of Utah, and which with the exercise of female suffrage have held the balance of political power in Utah since 1870. This fact has given much of a political character and mission to the Exponent and Mrs. Wells has several times been to the Eastern States to meet in conference with the leaders of the woman's rights movement of America, in fact for the last fifteen years a constant fellowship has been fostered between the " Women of America " and the "Women of Mormondom," the former fre- quently championing the cause of their Mormon female suffrage compeers. Of the Exponent itself they have said, " the Mormon women have a press." Few of the church organizations of the country can boast a woman's journal. There are but few in the world and they are mostly edited and supported by the hetero- dox rather than the orthodox element.

The Woman's Exponent, in a general sense, may be considered heterodox, seeing it is an advocate of woman's rights on the marriage question and female suffrage, but is also apostolic and devoted to the Mormon mission. It represents the opinions and sentiments of the Mormon women. All of their organizations are represented in its columns, and it is thus a means of intercommunication be-

APPENDIX.

tween branches, bringing the remotest into close connection with the more cer - tral ones, and keeping all advised of the various society movements.

In 1866, January 1, the first number of the Juvenile Instructor was issued ; George Q. Cannon, editor. The special design of this magazine was to educate the rising generation of the Mormon people, and to secure select readings for the homes, adapted to both parents and children. In this special mission, the Juven- ile Instructor has been a power in every city and hamlet throughout Utah. Its class of literature for variety, instruction and entertainment, and also in the quality of its subjects, entitles the Juvenile Instructor to a first rank among church magazines. In many respects it resembles the once famous " Cassell's Paper, " started in London nearly forty years ago, for the special purpose of educating the English homes, and whose mission was of a semi-religious order. The volumes of the Juvenile Instructer are not only copiously illustrated with wood-cuts to ac. company their subjects, but it frequently publishes original music from Utah com- posers. Indeed, though others of our home magazines have appeared with a few sheets of music type setting, to the Juvenile office belongs the honor of sustain- ing a semi-musical magazine. Mr. George C. Lambert, nephew of George Q. Cannon, was for many years the assistant of his uncle in all the publishing enter- prises of the Juvenile Instructor establishment.

The Contributor, a monthly magazine, was established in October, 1879, by Junius F. Wells. It is the representative organ of the young men's and young ladies' mutual improvement associations of the Latter-day Saints, and is an out- growth of those associations, drawing its support of matter and means, very largely, from them.

It is regarded as the leading exponent of the feelings and faith of what is sometimes called "Young Mormondom." Its columns are filled with matter from the pens of the young and progressive men and women of the Church, whose sentiment as regards literature, as well as religion, is expressed in the motto of the magazine: " The glory of God is intelligence."

The prosperity and growth of the Contributor has been phenomenal. It started out to represent the young men and women of Utah, depending upon them for matter to make it a magazine of original home literature, and has so far succeeded that above a hundred and fifty names are already added to its list of con- tributors, mostly names of young men and ladies who never before wrote for pub- lication.

The Contributor was at first a small octavo of twenty-four pages, issued monthly ; but, at the commencement of the second volume, was enlarged by an addition to its size and an increase to thirty-two pages. The third volume intro- duced steel engraving portraits, which have been a notable feature of the succeed- ing volumes.

Early in the present year-January 11th, ISS6, the Contributor Company was incorporated under the laws of Utah. The incorporators are among the leading men of the community, whose connection with the magazine insures its future prosperity. They are: Joseph F. Smith, Moses Thatcher, F. M. Lyman, John Henry Smith, Heber J. Grant, Orson F. Whitney, Richard W. Young, B. H. Roberts and Junius F. Wells. The officers of the company are Junius F.

HISTORY OF SALT LAKE CITY.

Wells, president ; Moses Thatcher, vice-president ; B. H. Roberts, secretary and treasurer ; H. J. Grant, O. F. Whitney, directors.

Junius F. Wells continues to occupy the editor's chair and to manage the publishing department.

In closing the history of Salt Lake journalism, we return to the Deseret News and the Tribune.

The Salt Lake Tribune is a culmination of other papers which accomplished a mission and passed away. Its original, undoubtedly, was the Valley Tan, whose offspring was the Vedette. The Mormon Tribune was but its parent in name. After the political coalition of 1870, which brought forward Henry W. Lawrence, as candidate for the office of mayor of Salt Lake City, on the ticket of the Lib- cral party, the common sense of the party quickly appreciated that the name " Mormon" Tribune must be resigned or another paper started in its stead. The transition to the Salt Lake Tribune was comparatively easy, yet scarcely was the change of name effected ere the new policy required that the editorial control should also change. This forced the retirement of Mr. E. L. T. Harrison, who was succeeded by Mr. Oscar G. Sawyer, who was brought on from the New York Herald staff to take the editorial charge.

The first issue of the Salt Lake Daily Tribune was on the 15th of April, 1871. The names of W. S. Godbe and E. L. T. Harrison still stood at the head of the paper ; William H. Shearman, business manager ; Oscar G. Sawyer was intro- duced as the managing editor.

The following is the prospectus of the Salt Lake Daily Tribune, under the caption " Our Programme :"

" The Daily Tribune will be a purely secular journal devoted entirely to the presentation of news and to the development of the mineral and commercial in - terests of the Territory. It will have no sectarian bias and will be the organ of no religious body whatever. The aim of the publishers will be to make it a news- paper in every sense of the word.

" The weekly Tribune having been the pioneer of the present mineral devel- opments of the Territory, it will continue to lead in this direction. Mineral mat- ters will, therefore, be one of its chief specialties. Correspondence has been se- cured in every mining camp, and arrangements entered into for obtaining perfect reports of the progress of mining operations throughout the Territory. The Tri- bune will be a complete record of mineral facts and statistics, the determination of the publishers being to make it the great mineral paper of the Territory.

" On political and social questions the policy of the paper will be to sustain the governmental institutions of the country. It will oppose all ecclesiastical in- terference in civil or legislative matters and advocate the exercise of a free ballot by the abolition of 'numbered tickets.'

"In municipal matters the Tribune will insist on uniformity and fixed rates of charges for licenses, such as permit of no discrimination between parties. It will also demand regular and full accounts of income and expenditures from all city, county, or other officers entrusted with public funds.

" Commercially, it will advocate the development of the mineral wealth of

APPENDIX

Utah as its chief specialty. It will labor for the breaking down of the present sectarian boundaries which have surrounded matters of trade in this Territory ; and work for the extension of its commercial relations with the rest of the world.

" As a journal the Tribune will know no such distinctions as ' Mormon ' or ' Gentile, ' and where sectional feelings exist it will aim for their abolishment by the encouragement of charitable feelings and the promotion of a better ac- quaintance.

" Correspondence is invited on all public questions of general interest from all who have anything to say and know how to say it with due regard for the opinions of others. We shall lay our columns open to the public for the freest criticism on public questions, provided disparaging personalities are avoided, and principles are handled rather than men."

The Salt Lake Tribune ran for awhile under the editorial direction of MI. Sawyer; with him were associated George W. Crouch and ,E. W. Tullidge, ex- Mormon elders, and a Mr. Slocum, a leading Spiritualist from California. That such a strange combination could not possibly give unity of purpose or consis- tency of tone to the paper was soon evident, especially as a similar inharmony existed among the board of directors. The Tribune, in fine, changed its char- acter, or rather mixed its characters with every issue. This "incompatibility of ournalism," as Mr. Sawyer explained to the public in his valedictory, which ex- isted between him and the directors forced him also to retire from his position as editor-in-chief, after which Mr. Fred. T. Perris became manager both in the edi- torial and business departments.

The Salt Lake Tribune next passed into the hands of another management. Three experienced journalists from Kansas took the paper on trial, relieving the original Tribune Publishing Company of the heavy burden of their subsidies, .which had hitherto sustained it, and soon afterwards that company itself became obsolete.

Mr. George F. Presscott, Mr. Hamilton and Mr. Fred. Lockley were each very able men in their several spheres. Prescott as manager of the paper saga- ciously retained in his department George Reed, who had been assistant business manager both of the Utah Magazine and the Tribune from the beginning, thus retaining the local business acquaintance. It was Mr. Fred. Lockley, however, that gave the marked and pungent anti-Mormon character to the Salt Lake Trib- une, for which it has become famous in the Gentile mind, infamous in the Mormon mind. But the Tribune is read at home and abroad-read by Mormon and Gen- tile. To accomplish this object was the primal aim of Mr. Prescott and his com- peers, and though they much offended the Mormon community, they won golden opinions from the anti-Mormons. Undoubtedly the Salt Lake Tribune represents " the irrepressible conflict." In this conflict towards the Mormon Church its po- . tency has resided ; but the Salt Lake Tribune is also a great newspaper, apart from any anti-Mormon mission ; and this is the salient point for notice in a re- view of Salt Lake journalism.

September 9th, 1883, the Salt Lake Daily Tribune passed into the hands of ; Mr. P. H. Lannan, and Judge C. C. Goodwin as business manager and principal editor. The paper is owned at present by Lannan, Goodwin and Mrs. O. J.

HISTORY OF SALT LAKE CITY.

Hollister. Under this new management the Tribune has culminated both in po- tency and editorial ability.

Numerous other papers have started, meantime, since the issue of the Mormon Tribune, January Ist, 1870; and the whole class have chosen as a mission to an- tagonize the Mormon Church. The latest of these is the Salt Lake Evening Democrat, March 2d, 1885. Its editor for one week was a Mr. Clark. He was succeeded by Alfales Young under whose editorial impulse the Democrat obtained considerable influence among a certain class of our citizens.

The Deseret News, which we left at an early date to continue the various lines of our journals, is to-day, as at the beginning, the apostolic exponent of the Mormon community. Its editors have been, first, Willard Richards, one of the Presidency of the Mormon Church, he having been chosen as the second coun- selor of Brigham Young on the re-organization of the Church after the assassina- tion of Joseph Smith, the founder. Willard Richards was a man of very marked character and an accomplished mind. He possessed considerable education be- fore he joined the Mormon people, and was also naturally a man of intellectual parts. Dr. Richards was the style by which he was known from the origin, nor did even the superior style of President Richards supersede his professional name. Undoubtedly Dr. Willard Richards gave much intellectual toning to the Mormon community; and he may be considered as the proper man to have been the founder of the official organ of the Church, for such the Deseret News undoubtedly must rank. The paper from the onset was stamped with Willard's character and influence, and the position he had held first as Joseph Smith's secretary, and afterwards as the sec- ond counselor to his dominant cousin, President Brigham Young, gave the News the voice of the Church.

Willard Richard's death, in 1854, gave the paper into the editorial hands of Albert Carrington, under whom it was continued. Judge Elias Smith succeeded Carrington. Under Smith's control the News manifested much character and in- dependence. His retirement was caused by the publication of an editorial in 1863, which seemed to breathe the tone of the Southern cause, and, though the the article was written by a subordinate, Judge Elias Smith was too much like his cousin Joseph, the Prophet, to shift the responsibility from his own shoulders.

Judge Elias Smith was succeeded by Albert Carrington, who continued the paper till 1867, when the Deseret News passed into the hands of George Q. Can- non. Under Cannon the News culminated its potency and was made a success as a newspaper as well as a Church organ. Previous to his time the paper had to be sustained greatly by the Church, but Cannon, in 1868, started Joseph Bull to the Eastern States to obtain advertisements from the merchants who held the Utah trade, or desired so to do. Bull carried with him an autograph letter from President Young, and the Eastern merchants saw the commercial wisdom of sus- taining the Salt Lake Deseret News. The " mission " of Bull to the States was a marked financial result, and thus by a business coup de main, Cannon made a bus- iness success of the Deseret News.

On October 8th, 1865, the Semi-weekly Deseret News was started by Albert Carrington, and in 1867, November Ist, George Q. Cannon started the Deseret Evening News, continuing also the semi and weekly. During Cannon's adminis-

APPENDIX.

tration the Deseret News Institution became a publishing house. In 1871, he established a type and stereotype foundry in connection with the Deseret News Office, aud published the first Utah edition-2,500 copies-of the Book of Mor- mon. He also published an edition of the Latter-day Saint's Hymn Book and other Church works. His editorial assistants were E. L. Sloan and David W. Evans ; his business manager, was his brother, Angus M. Cannon.

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History of Salt Lake City, Part 150

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