History of Salt Lake City, Part 4

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

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No matter what view the reader may take of the Mormons and their leaders relative to the intrinsic value to the world of their social and theological prob- lems, no intelligent mind can help being struck with the towering superiority of men trusting in their God, in the supremest hour of trial, compared with the foremost politicians in the country, including a President of the United States, as illustrated in the above example. It is charitably to be hoped, however, that President Polk was a very "silent party" to this scheme, and that his name was merely used to give potency to the promise of protection, and to the threat that the General Government would intercept the Mormons in their exodus.

Little did the political demagogues of the time, and these land speculators, un- derstand the Mormon people, and still less the character of the men who were lead- ing them; nor did "Elder Brannan" know them much better. From the beginning the Mormons never gave up an inch of their chosen ground, never, as a people, consented to a compromise, nor allowed themselves to be turned aside from their purposes, nor wavered in their fidelity to their faith. They would suffer expul- sion, or make an exodus if need be, yet ever, as in this case, have they answered, " Our trust is in God. We look to Him for protection." So far " Elder Brannan " understood them; hence his profession of faith that the Lord would overrule and break the " covenant with death." But these men did wiser and better. They never made the covenant, but calmly defied the consequences, which they knew too well might soon follow. Not even as much as to reply to Messrs. Benson, Kendall & Co. did they descend from the pinnacle of their integrity.

But, be it not for a moment thought that the Mormon leaders did not fully comprehend their critical position in all its aspects. A homely anecdote of the apostle George A. Smith will illustrate those times. At a council in Nauvoo, of the men who were to act as the captains of the people in that famous exodus, one after the other brought up difficulties in their path until the prospect was without

HISTORY OF SALT LAKE CITY.

one poor speck of daylight. The good nature of "George A." was provoked at last, when he sprang up and observed with his quaint humor that had now a touch of the grand in it, " If there is no God in Israel we are a 'sucked in' set of fel- lows. But I am going to take my family and cross the river, and the Lord will open the way." He was one of the first to set out on that miraculous journey to the Rocky Mountains.

Having resolved to trust in their God and themselves, quietly setting aside the politicians, Brigham Young and several of the Twelve left the Camp of Israel for a few days, and returned to bid farewell to their beloved Nauvoo, and hold a parting service in the Temple. This was the last time Brigham Young ever saw that sacred monument of the Mormons' devotion.

The Pioneers had now been a month on Sugar Creek, and during the time had, of course, consumed a vast amount of the provisions ; indeed, nearly all, which had been gathered up for their journey. Their condition, however, was not without its compensation ; for it checked the movements of the mob, among whom the opinion prevailed that the outfit of the Pioneers was so utterly insuffi- cient that, in a short time, they would break in pieces and scatter. Moreover, it was mid-winter. Up to the date of their starting from this first camping ground, detachments continued to join them, crossing the Mississippi, from Nauvoo, on the ice ; but before starting they addressed the following memorial :

" To His Excellency Governor of the Territory of Iowa :

Honored Sir : The time is at hand in which several thousand free citizens of this great Republic are to be driven from their peaceful homes and firesides, their property and farms, and their dearest constitutional rights, to wander in the barren plains and sterile mountains of western wilds, and linger out their lives in wretched exile, far beyond the pale of professed civilization, or else be extermi- nated upon their own lands by the people and authorities of the State of Illinois.

"As life is sweet, we have chosen banishment rather than death, but, sir, the terms of our banishment are so rigid, that we have not sufficient time allotted us to make the necessary preparations to encounter the hardships and difficulties of these dreary and uninhabited regions. We have not time allowed us to dispose of our property, dwellings and farms, consequently many of us will have to leave them unsold, without the means of procuring the necessary provisions, clothing, teams, etc., to sustain us but a short distance beyond the settlements ; hence our persecutors have placed us in very unpleasant circumstances.

" To stay is death by ' fire and sword ;' to go into banishment unprepared is death by starvation. But yet, under these heartrending circumstances, several hundred of us have started upon our dreary journey, and are now encamped in Lee County, Iowa, suffering much from the intensity of the cold. Some of us are already without food, and others have barely sufficient to last a few weeks : hundreds of others must shortly follow us in the same unhappy condition, therefore :

"We, the presiding authorities of the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints, as a committee in behalf of several thousand suffering exiles, humbly ask Your Excellency to shield and protect us in our constitutional rights, while we are passing through the Territory over which you have jurisdiction. And, should

HISTORY OF SALT LAKE CITY.

any of the exiles be under the necessity of stopping in this Territory for a time, either in settled or unsettled parts, for the purpose of raising crops, by renting farms or upon public lands, or to make the necessary preparations for their exile in any lawful way, we humbly petition Your Excellency to use an influence and power in our behalf, and thus preserve thousands of American citizens, together with their wives and children, from intense sufferings, starvation and death. And your petitioners will ever pray."

In the diary of the President is a sort of valedictory, written before starting on their journey from Sugar Creek, which concludes thus: " Our homes, gar- dens, orchards, farms, streets, bridges, mills, public halls, magnificent temple, and other public improvements we leave as a monument of our patriotism, indus- try, economy, uprightness of purpose, and integrity of heart, and as a living testimony of the falsehood and wickedness of those who charge us with disloyalty to the Constitution of our country, idleness and dishonesty."

The Mormons were setting out under their leaders, from the borders of civil- ization, with their wives and their children, in broad daylight, before the very eyes of ten thousand of their enemies, who would have preferred their utter de- struction to their " flight," notwithstanding they had enforced it by treaties out- rageous beyond description, inasmuch as the exiles were nearly all American born, many of them tracing their ancestors to the very founders of the nation. They had to make a journey of fifteen hundred miles over trackless prairies, sandy deserts and rocky mountains, through bands of warlike Indians, who had been driven, exasperated, towards the West; and at last, to seek out and build up their Zion in valleys then unfruitful, in a solitary region where the foot of the white man had scarcely trod. These, too, were to be followed by the aged, the halt, the sick and the blind, the poor, who were to be helped by their little less destitute brethren, and the delicate young mother with her new-born babe at her breast, and still worse, for they were not only threatened with the extermination of the poor remnant at Nauvoo, but news had arrived that the parent-government de- signed to pursue their pioneers with troops, take from them their arms, and scat- ter them, that they might perish by the way, and leave their bones bleaching in the wilderness.

Yet did Brigham Young deal with the exodus of the Mormon people as sim- ply in its opening as he did in his daily record of it. So, indeed, did the entire Mormon community. They all seemed as oblivious of the stupendous meaning of an exodus, as did the first workers on railroads of the vast meaning to civiliza- tion of that wonder of the age. A people trusting in their God, the Mormons were, in their mission, superior to the greatest human trials, and in their child- like faith equal to almost superhuman undertakings. To-day, however, with the astonishing change which has come over the spirit of the scene, on the whole Pacific Slope, since the Mormons pioneered our nation towards the setting sun, the picture of a modern Israel in their exodus has almost faded from the popular mind; but, in the centuries hence, when the passing events of this age shall have each taken their proper place, the historian will point back to that exodus in the New World of the West, as one quite worthy to rank with the immortal exodus of the children of Israel.

HISTORY OF SALT LAKE CITY.

At about noon, on the Ist of March, 1846, the " Camp of Israel" began to move, and at four o'clock nearly four hundred wagons were on the the way, travel- ing in a north-westerly direction. At night, they camped again on Sugar Creek, having advanced five miles. Scraping away the snow, they pitched their tents upon the hard frozen ground ; and after building large fires in front, they made themselves as comfortable as possible under the circumstances. Indeed, it is questionable whether any other people in the world could have cozened them- selves into a happy state of mind amid such surroundings, with such a past, fresh and bleeding in their memories, and with such a prospect as was before both themselves and the remnant of their brethren left in Nauvoo to the tender mer- cies of the mob. In his diary Apostle Orson Pratt wrote that night, " Notwith- standing our sufferings, hardships and privations, we are cheerful, and rejoice that we have the privilege of passing through tribulation for the truth's sake."

These Mormon pilgrims, who took much consolation on their journey in likening themselves to the pilgrim fathers and mothers of this nation, whose de- scendants many of them actually were, that night made their beds upon the frozen earth. "After bowing before our great Creator," wrote Apostle Pratt, " and offering up praise and thanksgiving to him, and imploring his protection, we resigned ourselves to the slumbers of the night."

But the weather was more moderate that night than it had been for several weeks previous. At their first encampment the thermometer, at one time, fell twenty degrees below zero, freezing over the great Mississippi. The survivors of that journey will tell you they never suffered so much from the cold in their lives as they did on Sugar Creek. And what of the Mormon women? Around them circles an almost tragic romance. Fancy may find abundant subject for graphic story of the devotion, the suffering, the matchless heroism of the " Sisters," in the telling incident that nine children were born to them the first night they camped out on Sugar Creek, February 5th, 1846. That day they wept their farewells over their beloved city, or in the sanctuary of the Temple, in which they had hoped to worship till the end of life, but which they left, never to see again ; that night suffering nature administered to them the mixed cup of woman's supremest joy and pain.

But it was not prayer alone that sustained these pilgrims. The practical philosophy of their great leader, daily and hourly applied to the exigencies of their case, did almost as much as their own matchless faith to sustain them from the commencement to the end of their journey. With that leader had very properly conie to the "Camp of Israel " several of the Twelve and the chief bishops of the Church, but he also brought with him a quorum humble in pre- tensions, yet useful as high priests to the Saints in those spirit saddening days. It was Captain Pitt's brass band. That night the President had the "brethren and sisters" out in the dance, and the music was as glad as at a merry-making. Several gentlemen from Iowa gathered to witness the strange interesting scene. They could scarcely believe their own senses when they were told that these were the Mormons in their " flight from civilization," bound they knew not whither, except where God should lead them by the " hand of his servant."

Thus in the song and the dance the Saints praised the Lord. When the

HISTORY OF SALT LAKE CITY.

night was fine, and supper, which consisted of the most primitive fare, was over, some of the men would clear away the snow, while others bore large logs to the camp fires in anticipation of the jubilee of the evening. Soon, in a sheltered place, the blazing fires would roar, and fifty couples, old and young, would join, in the merriest spirit, to the music of the band or the rival revelry of the soli- tary fiddle. As they journeyed along, too, strangers constantly visited their camps, and great was their wonderment to see the order, unity and good feeling that prevailed in the midst of the people. By the camp fires they would linger, listening to the music and song ; and they fain had taken part in the merriment had not those scenes been as sacred worship in the exodus of a God-fearing peo- ple. To fully understand the incidents here narrated, the reader must couple in his mind the idea of an exodus with the idea of an Israelitish jubilee; for it was a jubilee to the Mormons to be delivered from their enemies at any price.

The sagacious reader will readily appreciate the wise method pursued by Brigham Young. Prayers availed much. The hymn and the prayer were never forgotten at the close of the dance, before they dispersed, to make their bed within the shelter of the wagon, or under it, exposed to the cold of those bitter nights. But the dance and the song kept the Mormon pilgrims cheerful and healthy in mind, whereas, had a spirit of gloomy fanaticism been encouraged, such as one might have expected, most likely there would soon have been murmur- ing in the congregation against their Moses, and the people would have been sighing for the flesh-pots of Egypt. The patriarchal care of Brigham Young over the migrating thousands was also something uncommon. It was extended to every family, every soul; even the very animals had the master friend near to ease and succor them. A thousand anecdotes could be told of that journey to illustrate this. When traveling, or in camp, he was ever looking after the wel- fare of all. No poor horse or ox even had a tight collar or a bow too small but his eye would see it. Many times did he get out of his vehicle and see that some suffering animal was relieved.

There can be no doubt that the industrious habits of the Mormons, and the semi-communistic character of their camps, enabled them to accomplish on their journey what otherwise would have been impossible. They were almost destitute at the start, but they created resources on the way. Their pioneers and able- bodied men generally took work on farms, split rails, cleared the timber for the new settlers, fenced their lands, built barns and husked their corn. Each night brought them some employment ; and, if they laid over for a day or two at their encampment, the country around was busy with their industry. They also scattered for work, some of them going even into Missouri among their ancient enemies to turn to the smiter the " other cheek," while they were earning sup- port for their families.

At one of their first camping grounds, on a ten-acre lot which the pioneer had cleared of timber, they made the acquaintance of its owner, a Dr. Jewett. The worthy doctor was an enthusiast over mesmerism and animal magnetism, so he sought to convert the Mormon leaders to his views. Brigham Young replied, "I perfectly understand it, Doctor. We believe in the Lord's magnetizing. He magnetized Belshazzar so that he saw the hand-writing on the wall." The

HISTORY OF SALT LAKE CITY.

Mormons, too, had seen the hand-writing on the wall, and were hastening to the mountains.

The citizens of Farmington came over to invite the Nauvoo Band, under Captain Pitt, to come to their village for a concert. There was some music left in the " brethren." They had not forgotten how to sing the " Songs of Zion," so they made the good folks of Farmington merry, and for a time forgot their own sorrows.

As soon as the "Camp of Israel" was fairly on the march, the leader, with the Twelve and the captains, divided it into companies of hundreds, fifties, and tens ; and then the companies took up their line in order, Brigham Young direct- ing the whole, and bringing up the main body, with the chief care of the families.

The weather was still intensely cold. The Pioneers moved in the face of keen- edged northwest winds ; they broke the ice to give their cattle drink ; they made their beds on the soaked prairie lands ; heavy rains and snow by day, and frost at night, rendered their situation anything but pleasant. The bark and limbs of trees were the principal food of their animals, and after doubling their teams all day, wading through the deep mud, they would find themselves at night only a few miles on their journey. They grew sick of this at last, and for three weeks rested on the head waters of the Chariton, waiting for the freshets to subside.

These incidents of travel were varied by an occasional birth in camp. There was also the death of a lamented lady early on the journey. She was a gentle, intelligent wife of a famous Mormon missionary, Orson Spencer, once a Baptist minister of excellent standing. She had requested the brethren to take her with them. She would not be left behind. Life was too far exhausted by the perse- cutions to survive the exodus, but she could yet have the honor of dying in that immortal circumstance of her people. Several others of the sisters also died at the very starting. Ah, who shall fitly picture the lofty heroism of the Mormon women !

It was near the Chariton that the organization of the " Camp of Israel " was perfected, on the 27th of March, when Brigham Young was formally chosen as the President ; and captains of hundreds, fifties, and tens were appointed.

Thus the Twelve became relieved of their mere secular commands, and were placed at the heads of divisions, in their more apostolic character, as presidents.

The provisioning of the camp was also equally brought under organic man- agement. Henry G. Sherwood was appointed contracting commissary for the first fifty ; David D. Yearsley for the second; W. H. Edwards for the third ; Peter Haws for the fourth ; Samuel Gulley for the fifth: Joseph Warburton for the sixth. Henry G. Sherwood ranked as acting commissary-general. There were also distributing commissaries appointed. Their duties, says the President's diary, "are to make a righteous distribution of grain and provisions, and such articles as shall be furnished for the use of the camp, among their respec- tive fifties."

Thus it will be seen that the "Camp of Israel" now partook very much of a military character, with all of an army's organic efficiency.

HISTORY OF SALT LAKE CITY.

Towards the end of April the camp came to a place the leaders named Gar- den Grove. Here they determined to form a small settlement, open farms, and make a temporary gathering place for "the poor," while the better prepared were to push on the way and make other settlements.

On the morning of the 27th of April the bugle sounded at Garden Grove, and all the men assembled to organize for labor. Immediately hundreds of men were at work cutting trees, splitting rails, making fences, cutting logs for houses, building bridges, digging wells, making plows, and herding cattle. Quite a num- ber were sent into the Missouri settlements to exchange horses for oxen, valuable feather beds and the like for provisions and articles most needed in the camp, and the remainder engaged in plowing and planting. Messengers were also dis- patched to call in the bands of pioneers scattered over the country seeking work, with instructions to hasten them up to help form the new settlements before the season had passed ; so that, in a scarcely conceivable time, at Garden Grove and Mount Pisgah, industrious settlements sprang up almost as if by magic. The main body also hurried on towards old Council Bluffs, under the President and his chief men, to locate winter quarters, and to send on a picked company of pioneers that year to the Rocky Mountains. Reaching the Missouri River, they were welcomed by the Pottowatomie and Omaha Indians.

By this time Apostle Orson Hyde had arrived at headquarters from Nauvoo, and Apostle Woodruff, home from his mission to England, was at Mount Pisgah. To this place an express from the President at Council Bluffs came to raise one hundred men for the expedition to the mountains. Apostle Woodruff called for the mounted volunteers, and sixty at once followed him out into the line; but the next day an event occurred which caused the postponement of the journey to the mountains till the following year.

It was on the 26th of June when the camp at Mount Pisgah was thrown into consternation by the cry, " The United States troops are upon us !" But soon afterwards, Captain James Allen arriving with only three dragoons, the excite- ment subsided. The High Council was called, and Captain Allen laid before it his business, which is set forth in the following

" Circular to the Mormons :

I have come among you, instructed by Col. S. F. Kearney, of the U. S. Army, now commanding the Army of the West, to visit the Mormon camp, and to accept the service for twelve months of four or five companies of Mormon men who may be willing to serve their country for that period in our present war with Mexico ; this force to unite with the Army of the West at Santa Fe, and be marched thence to California, where they will be discharged.

" They will receive pay and rations, and other allowances, such as other volunteers or regular soldiers receive, from the day they shall be mustered into the service, and will be entitled to all comforts and benefits of regular soldiers of the army, and when discharged, as contemplated, at California, they will be given gratis their arms and accoutrements, with which they will be fully equipped at Fort Leavenworth. This is offered to the Mormon people now. This year an opportunity of sending a portion of their young and intelligent men to the ulti- mate destination of their whole people, and entirely at the expense of the United

HISTORY OF SALT LAKE CITY.

States, and this advanced party can thus pave the way and look out the land for their brethren to come after them. .

" Those of the Mormons who are desirous of serving their country on the conditions here enumerated, are requested to meet me without delay at their principal camp at the Council Bluffs, whither I am now going to consult with their principal men, and to receive and organize the force contemplated to be raised.

" I will receive all healthy, able-bodied men of from eighteen to forty-five years of age.

J. ALLEN, Capt. Ist Dragoons.

"Camp of the Mormons at Mount Pisgah, 138 miles east of Council Bluffs, June 26th, 1846.

" NOTE .- I hope to complete the organization of this battalion in six days after my reaching Council Bluffs, or within nine days from this time."

The High Council of Mount Pisgah treated the military envoy with studied courtesy, but the matter was of too great importance for even an opinion to be hazarded in the absence of the master mind ; so Captain Allen was furnished with a letter of introduction to Brigham Young and the authorities at headquar- ters, and a special messenger was dispatched by Apostle Woodruff to prepare the President for the business of the government agent.

CHAPTER III.

THE CALL FOR THE MORMON BATTALION. INTERVIEWS WITH PRESIDENT POLK. THE APOSTLES ENLISTING SOLDIERS FROM THEIR PEOPLE FOR THE SERVICE OF THE NATION. THE BATTALION ON THE MARCH.

We now come to a subject in Mormon history of which two opposite views have been taken, neither of which, perhaps, are unqualifiedly correct. It is that of the calling of a Mormon battalion to serve the nation in its war with Mexico, as set forth in the circular already given. One view is that the Government, prompted by such men as Senator Benton of Missouri, sought to destroy, or at least to cripple the Mormons, by taking from them five hundred of their best men, in an Indian country, and in their exodus; while the other view is that the Government designed their good and honor. The truth is that a few honorable gentlemen like Colonel Thomas L. Kane did so design; but it is equally true that the great majority heartily wished for their utter extinction ; while Senator Douglass and many other politicians, seeing in this vast migration of the Mor- mons towards the Pacific the ready and most efficient means to wrest California from Mexico, favored the calling of the battalion for national conquest, without caring what afterwards became of those heroic men who left their families and

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History of Salt Lake City, Part 4

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