History of Salt Lake City, Part 83

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

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HISTORY OF SALT LAKE CITY.

Aması Lyman and George A. Smith, organize a company ; and appoint presidents, and captains of hundreds, and of fifties, and of tens ; and let my servants that have been appointed, go and teach this my will to the Saints, that they may be ready to go to a land of peace. Go thy way and do as I have told you, and fear not thine enemies ; for they shall not have power to stop my work. Zion shall be redeemed in mine own due time. And if any man shall seek to build up himself and seeketh not my counsel, he shall have no power, and his folly shall be made mani- fest. Seek ye and keep all your pledges one with another, and covet not that which is thy brother's Keep yourselves from evil to take the name of the Lord in vain, for I am the Lord your God, even the God of your fathers, the God of Abraham, and of Isaac, and of Jacob. I am he who led the children of Israel out of the land of Egypt, and my arm is stretched out in the last days to save my people Israel. Cease to contend one with another, cease to speak evil one of another. Cease drunkenness, and let your words tend to edifying one another. If thou borrowest of thy neighbor, thou shalt return that which thou hast bor- rowed ; and if thou canst not repay, then go straight way and tell thy neighbor, lest he condemn thee. If thou shalt find that which thy neighbor has lost, thou shalt make diligent search till thou shalt deliver it to him again. Thou shalt be diligent in preserving what thou hast, that thou mayest be a wise steward ; for it is the free gift of the Lord thy God, and thou art his steward. If thou art merry, praise the Lord with singing, with music, with dancing, and with a prayer of praise and thanksgiving. If thou art sorrowful, call on the Lord thy God with supplication, that your souls may be joyful."

It was upon this practical plan, now fairly developed during the sojourn of our modern Israel " in the wilderness," and upon the foregoing revelation, that the community was removed from Winter Quarters to the Rocky Mountains ; and in - deed also thereon all the emigrations were conducted, both from the States and Europe in crossing " the plains" down to the day of the completion of the Union Pacific Railroad. Thus, in the peopling of these valleys, the regular Mor- mon system has prevailed, and that, too, long after society in Utah had become mixed-as Mormon and Gentile-and after the Federal part of the government of the Territory had passed entirely out of the hands of its founders. One of the most striking features of the Mormon emigrations, which has so often attracted the attention of the world, was the family, or patriarchal character of the Mormon companies, which yearly crossed the Plains from 1847 to 1868-9. Indeed, while on ship-board and on the way to the valleys, they have been strictly as an organi- zation of families, belonging to a peculiar community, and when not that they are historically as nothing in this Mormon system of colonization. Not only did the pioneers travel under their captains of hundreds, of fifties and tens ; but so also did the other companies that followed quickly in their footsteps the same season, and afterwards in 1848, when Brigham Young, Heber C. Kimball, and Willard Richards gathered the body of the community to the mountains, in the "second pioneer journey " from Winter Quarters. And all this was done, too, upon the communistic patriarchal plan and genius of the Mormon church, and not as a mere masterly socialistic experiment in peopling a country.

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CHAPTER LXXVI.

ORGANIZATION OF SOCIETY IN SALT LAKE CITY. THE LAND RIGHTS. VIEWS AND INCIDENTS OF THE EARLY DAYS.

The social evolution of the community in the valleys was patriarchal and Israelitish, not secular and modern, and their " land question " in establishing the cities of Utah, was typed with the Mormon Prophet's communistic law of giv- ing the Saints their " inheritances."

In laying off the " city of the Great Salt Lake," the pioneers observed the com- mandments of the patriarchal revelation given them before leaving Winter Quarters, relative to the building of houses and planting crops for those who remained or who were to follow in their track, " dividing their property, in taking care of the poor, the widows, and the families of those who have gone with the army." As seen in the diary note of historian Woodruff, quoted in the opening chap- ters, having laid off their city plot, " the Twelve held council. Each one was to make choice of the blocks that they were to settle their friends upon. President Young took the tier of blocks south through the city : Brother Kimball's runs north and northwest ; Orson Pratt, four blocks; Wilford Woodruff, eight blocks ; George A. Smith, eight blocks, and Amasa Lyman, twelve blocks, according to the companies organised with cach."

This was no " land grab," nor were these blocks personal property of the pioneer leaders, but for the giving or apportioning of " inheritances" to the fami- lies patriarchally organized with their natural families, by adoption, or friends and brothers for whom they were providing homes, in their Mormon system of colonization.

Having surveyed their city plot, taken up their tiers of blocks, built their fort and houses, of logs fetched from the mountains, and ploughed and planted eighty-four acres with corn, potatoes, beans, buckwheat, turnips, etc., on the morning of the 26th of August, 1847, the pioneers, with most of the returning members of the Mormon Battalion, harnessed their horses and bade farewell to the brethren who were to tarry. In this return move to the body of the com- munity, the pioneers were again strictly carrying out the plan : " Let each com- pany prepare houses, and fields for raising corn for those who are to remain behind this season ;" and " let every man use all his influence to remove this people to the place where the Lord shall locate a stake of Zion." They had done the same along the route from Nauvoo to the Rocky Mountains, first at Garden Grove, next at Mount Pisgah, then at Council Bluffs, and finally in the valley, and were now returning to gather up the residue of the people. They were also about to extend their plan, with equal fidelity, in the emigration of tens of thousands from

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Europe to populate the valleys of the Rocky Mountains which as colonists they claimed.

Notwithstanding about two thousand souls, under their " captains of hun- dreds," of " fifties," and "tens," arrived in the valley with seven hundred wagons, after the pioneers left, the apportioning of the lands of the city plot was ended for that year, and indeed until the return of the Presidency. There was no disposition manifested to " grab " the lands; yet they all were colonists, with equal rights, at least to city lots and farms not apportioned to the families of the pioneers proper, who had taken posession of this valley and laid off and surveyed the city. What they did was done as a community. Indeed it may be noted, as an illustration of the integrity of the pioneer work for the community, versus in- dividual land-holding to the detriment of the commonwealth, that Wilford Wood- ruff, who had taken eight ten-acre blocks of the city plot, and Orson Pratt four, were both bound on missions, the former to the Eastern States, the latter to pre- side over the British Mission, and that the blocks which they had nominally claimed were apportioned out during their absence to early settlers of the city, according to the pioneer order which they approved at the conference held in the valley before their departure. Those blocks never were their personal property.

During the absence of President Young the colony simply extended and im- proved their fort and works begun by the pioneers, gathered their crops, hus- banded their stock, took an inventory of their breadstuffs, by the supervision of the bishop, to ration the families till harvest time, and anxiously waited the re- turn of their presiding leaders. But as soon as President Young arrived in the valley (September 20th, 1848) on his second pioneer journey, bringing with him a company of 1, 299 souls and 397 wagons, followed by Heber C. Kimball, with a company of 662 souls and 226 wagons, and with the third company of 526 souls and 169 wagons, under Willard Richards, the growth of Great Salt Lake City took giant strides. Within a month (at the October conference) the city was divided into nineteen wards, bishops placed over them, and this stake of Zion organized, upon which both the society and government of Salt Lake City grew.

The parent colony of the Great Salt Lake numbered, now, in the fall of 1848, nearly six thousand souls, and their lands were held not by purchase, but by the strict communistic law of the Mormon Church, which " gives to the Saints their inheritances." They received their apportionment of city lots upon a most simple, equitable, social plan. Each family of colonists received its due share of the lands, and no sale or purchase of the lands was permitted, in the first instance, which, until apportioned, belonged to the community as colonists and not to the individual.

The following note from the first general epistle sent out from the Mormon Presidency in the spring of 1849, fits the subject at this point. They said : " A field of 8,000 acres has been surveyed south of and bordering an the city, and plotted in five and ten acre lots, and a Church farm of about 800 acres. The five and ten acre lots were distributed to the brethren, by casting lots, and every man is to help build a pole, ditch or stone fence, as shall be most convenient, around the whole field in proportion to the land he draws ; also a canal on the east side for the purpose of irrigation."

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Upon such simple, equitable plans these Mormon colonists designed to appor- tion the city and farming lands not only of this Salt Lake valley, but of every valley of the Rocky Mountains, and to apply their "law of inheritance" to mil- lions of their own community, who were expected in due time to inhabit these valleys. So vast a system of colonization has not been conceived, much less at- tempted, in modern times ; and these Mormon leaders would have carried out their original design to the very letter, traveling nearer constantly to the " order of Enoch " and the patriarchal relations of Abraham, had they remained in sole pos- session of these valleys as in 1847, when their primal rights as colonists were su- preme.

The land portion of each family, as a rule, was the acre-and-a-quarter lot, designated in the plan of the city, but the chief men of the pioneers, who had a plurality of wives and numerous children received larger portions of the city lots. The giving of farms, as shown in the general epistle, was upon the same principle as the apportioning of city lots-" every man should have his land measured out to him for city and farming purposes."

The farm of five, ten or twenty acres was not for the mechanic, nor the manufacturer, nor even for the farmer as a mere personal property, but for the good of the community at large, to give the substance of the earth to feed the ¡ opulation ; the right of the farmer to the farming land was upon the law of cul- tivation, otherwise he had no claim upon the land. "He might till it as he pleased, but he must be industrious and take care of it." So also was the law relative to city lots, owned either by the farmer or mechanic. He must build a house upon it and plant an orchard ; and while the farmer was planting and cul- tivating his farm the mechanic and tradesman produced his supplies for the public good, and thus both classes interchanged supplies and wrought his daily work for the community. This was the first phase of commerce and trade among the community in the settling of these valleys. Money was not the basis, for the people had none; nor had they as yet imported goods for trade and barter ; each had about the same family needs, with no surplus. Work, cultivation, produc- tion, industry, formed the basis of all, and very fitly the beehive was chosen as the emblem of the State-Deseret. It should further be marked, in the social formation of these colonies, that there were no land rights or claims held for several years by any grants from corporations, either of the city or Territory. The land was held by the simple right of colonization. One dollar and fifty cents, paid to Thomas Bullock, clerk of Salt Lake County, to pay for the survey and recording, was the only thing in the transaction that had the least element of purchase, and this was not for the land, but for labor, clerical work and records, nor was this dollar and a half paid in money, but in exchange of labor, or produce.

It can be easily understood how some departures were made from this original plan. First may be named the extraordinary flow of population to the Pacific Slope, the coming of Gentile merchants to Utah, the gradual mixture of society and the land necessities of the vast emigrations, which have yearly given settlers to Salt Lake City, and the needs of the first land owners to sell their city lots, or portions of those lots to obtain " States' goods " required in the household, for

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building purposes, for machirery, for material to help home manufactures. and numerous things which could not be supplied from the native resources of this Territory. But withal there remained, strongly marked, through the whole period of the administration of Brigham Young, as Governor of the Territory, the original features of the community, and many of them to this day are stamped indelibly on the face of the Mormon part of society in all the cities which have sprung up in the valleys of the Rocky Mountains.

Here may be repeated for their excellent pertinency and application, several passages from the early pictures of society in Salt Lake City. Captain Stans- bury, in his report to the Government, wrote :

" The founding, within the space of three years, of a large and flourishing community upon a spot so remote from the abodes of men, so completely shut out by natural barriers from the rest of the world, so entirely unconnected by water-courses with either of the oceans that wash the shores of this continent-a country offering no advantages of inland navigation or of foreign commerce, but, on the contrary, isolated by vast uninhabited deserts, and only to be reached by long, painful, and often hazardous journeys by land-presents an anomaly so very peculiar, that it deserves more than a passing notice. In this young and pros- perous country of ours, where cities grow up in a day, and States spring up in a year, the successful planting of a colony, where the natural advantages have been such as to hold out the promise of adequate reward to the projectors, would have excited no surprise ; but the success of an enterprise under circumstances so much at variance with all our preconceived ideas of its probability, may well be con- sidered one of the most remarkable incidents of the present age.

" Their admirable system of combining labor, while each has his own prop- erty, in lands and tenements, and the proceeds of his industry, the skill in divid- ing off the lands, and conducting the irrigating canals to supply the want of rain, which rarely falls between April and October ; the cheerful manner in which every one applies himself industriously, but not laboriously ; the complete reign of good neighborhood and quiet houses and fields, form themes for admiration to the stranger coming from the dark and sterile recesses of the mountain gorges into this flourishing valley ; and he is struck with wonder at the immense results, produced in so short a time, by a handful of individuals.

" We remained thus shut up until the 3d of April. Our quarters consisted of a small unfurnished house of unburnt brick or adobe, unplastered, and roofed with boards loosely nailed on, which, every time it stormed, admitted so much water as called into requisition all the pans and buckets in the establishment to receive the numerous little streams which came trickling down from every crack and knot-hole. During this season of comparative inaction, we received from the authorities and citizens of the community every kindness that the most warm- hearted hospitality could dictate, and no effort was spared to render us comfort- able as their own limited means would admit. Indeed, we were much better lodged than many of our neighbors ; for, as has been previously observed, very many families were obliged still to lodge wholly or in part in their wagons, which, being covered, served, when taken off from the wheels and set upon the ground, to make bedrooms, of limited dimensions it is true, but yet exceedingly comfort-

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able. Many of these were comparatively large and commodious, and when car- peted and furnished with a little stove, formed an additional apartment or back building to the small cabin, with which they frequently communicated by a door. It certainly argued a high tone of morals and an habitual observance of good order and decorum, to find women and children thus securely slumbering in the midst of a large city, with no protection from midnight molestation other than a wagon- cover of linen and the ægis of the law. In the very next enclosure to that occu- pied by our party, a whole family of children had no other shelter than one of these wagons, where they slept all the winter, literally out of doors, there being no communication whatever with the inside of their parent's house."

Captain Stansbury wrote this simply as of a marvelous society experiment in this age and country; but he did not so well perceive that all these peculiar society features, were the results of the patriarchal organizations of the Mormons, and the spirit of their " order of Enoch," which they were seeking to infuse into their commonwealth. Women and children " slumbered securely" " in the midst of a large city " of eight thousand inhabitants, for that city was one family; " with no protection from midnight molestation other than a wagon cover of linen and the ægis of the law." That law was the Mormon patriarchal law, not the law of the United States. Had any brother in that city, (" stake of Zion ") in 1850, broken that law in "molesting" those " women and children," or in violating the sanctity of the " family," (though the " Danite Band " is mythical) he would have found a Danite in Zion to have prevented him from ever doing the like again. This was illustrated by Major Howard Egan (the " Kit Carson " of the Mormon com. munity) when he killed his Mormon brother for consorting with his wife, and was defended in a U. S. court, by Apostle George A. Smith, in the first criminal trial in that court, in Salt Lake City, U. S. Associate Justice Zerubbabel Snow presiding.

One other passage from the letter of a California gold seeker, from the New York Tribune, (date July 8th, 1849) shall be repeated to illustrate the patriarchal society of our city in those primitive days :

" The company of gold diggers which I have the honor to command, arrived here on the 3d instant, and judge our feelings when, after some twelve hundred miles travel through an uncultivated desert, and the last one hundred miles of the distance through and among lofty mountains, and narrow and diffi. cult ravines, we found ourselves suddenly and almost unexpectedly, in a compara- tive paradise. * At first sight of all these signs of cultivation in the wilderness, we were transported with wonder and pleasure. Some wept, some gave three cheers, some laughed, and some ran and fairly danced for joy, while all felt inexpressibly happy to find themselves once more amid scenes which mark the progress of advancing civilization. We passed on amid scenes like these, expecting every moment to come to some commercial centre, some business point in this great metropolis of the mountains, but we were disappointed. No hotel, sign post, cake and beer shop, barber pole, market house, grocery, pro- vision, dry goods, or hardware store distinguished one part of the town from another; not even a bakery or a mechanic's sign was anywhere discernible.

" Here, then, was something new : an entire people reduced to a level, and

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all living by their labor-all cultivating the earth, or following some branch of physical industry. At first I thought it was an experiment, an order of things established purposely to carry out the principles of . socialism ' or ' Mormonism.' In short, I thought it very much like Owenism personified. However, on in- quiry, I found that a combination of seemingly unavoidable circumstances had produced this singular state of affairs, There were no hotels because there had been no travel ; no barber shops, because every one chose to shave himself, and no one had time to shave his neighbor ; no stores, because they had no goods to sell, nor time to traffic ; no centre of business, because were all too busy to make a centre.

" There was abundance of mechanics' shops, of dressmakers, milliners and tailors, etc .; but they needed no sign, nor had they time to paint or erect one, for they were crowded with business. Beside their several trades, all must culti- vate the land or die, for the country was new, and no cultivation but their own within a thousand miles. Every one had his own lot, and built on it ; every one cultivated it, and perhaps a small farm in the distance.

" And the strangest of all was, that this great city, extending over several square miles, had been erected, and every house and fence made, within nine or ten months of the time of our arrival ; while at the same time, good bridges were erected over the principal streams, and the country settlements extended nearly one hundred miles up and down the valley.

" This Territory, State, or, as some term it, ' Mormon empire,' may justly be considered one of the greatest prodigies of our time, and, in comparison with its age, the most gigantic of all Republics in existence-being only in its second year since the first seed of cultivation was planted, or the first civilized habita- tion commenced. If these people were such thieves and robbers as their enemies represent them to be in the States, I must think they have greatly reformed in point of industry since coming to the mountains."

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CHAPTER LXXVIII.

ORIGIN OF THE BRITISH EMIGRATION TO SALT LAKE CITY. ITS CIRCUMSTAN- TIAL HISTORY. THE P. E. FUND COMPANY. ARRIVAL OF THE FIRST BRITISH EMIGRANTS. GRAND RECEPTION BY THE CITIZENS. MODE OF CONDUCTING THE EMIGRATION. DICKENS' GRAPHIC DESCRIPTION OF " MY EMIGRANT SHIP."

The history of the Mormon emigrations is one of the most unique and inter esting society subjects of modern times. From these sources have come not only the bulk of the population of this city and Territory, but also a considerable por- tion of the population of the surrounding States and Territories. Even the city of St. Louis, a quarter of a century ago, was largely sprinkled with Mormon ele- ment, as many of the emigrants to Utah tarried on the way, exhausted by the long sea voyage and destitute of means to pursue their journey to the mountains. Moreover, the emigrational methods by which this vast communistic result was ac- complished supplied considerable of the material wealth of the Territory, in the early days, and gave means and opportunities for its commerce.

In the year 1837, that splendid missionary movement was " revealed " to the Prophet Joseph Smith, to send the gospel of the latter-day work to Great Britain and gather from the mother country a people to build up Zion. Speaking of his efforts to establish Zion in Ohio and Missouri, the Prophet has left the following notes in his history :

"About this time (1837), the spirit of speculation in lands and property of all kinds, which was so prevalent throughout the whole nation, was taking deep ruot in the church. As the fruits of this spirit, evil surmisings, fault-finding, dis- union, dissension, and apostacy followed in quick succession, and it seemed as though all the powers of earth and hell were combining their influence in an especial manner to overthrow the church, * * and many became disaffected towards me as though I were the sole cause of those very evils I was most strenuously striving against, and which were actually brought upon us by the brethren not giving heed to my counsel.

" No quorum in the church was entirely free from the influence of those false spirits who were striving against me for the mastery. Even some of the Twelve were so far lost to their high and responsible calling as to begin to take sides, secretly, with the enemy.

" In this state of things God revealed to me that something new must be done for the salvation of his church. And on or about the Ist of June, 1837, Heber C. Kimball, one of the Twelve, was set apart by the spirit of prophecy and revelation, prayer and the laying on of hands of the first presidency, to pre-

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History of Salt Lake City, Part 83

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