History of Salt Lake City, Part 85

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

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" In the first vessel occupied by the Scandinavian emigration, in the last sea- son, were thirty-three persons from the German mission, shipped under the direc- tion of Elder Daniel Carn, president of the mission at that time.

" The emigration from the French, Swiss, and Italian missions has hitherto, upon arrival in Liverpool, joined the British, and has been shipped in the vessel sent out by the president of this mission. Interpreters, "speaking French, Italian and English have accompanied them.

" MODE OF CONDUCTING THE EMIGRATION-Applications for passage are received by the agent, and when sufficient are on hand a vessel is chartered by him, and the passengers are notified by printed circulars, containing instructions to them how to proceed, when to be in Liverpool to embark, also stating the price of passage, the amount of provisions allowed, etc. It is often the case that one con- ference or district furnishes a ship load or the greatest part of it. In such cases arrangements are made for them to embark together, and the president of the conference, or some other suitable person, contracts with the railway company for their conveyance to Liverpool altogether, which saves much expense.

" In contracting for the vessel, it is agreed that the passengers shall go on board either on the day of their arrival in Liverpool, or the day following, and although this arrangement may be inconvenient to them, it saves the ruinous ex- pense of lodging ashore, and preserves many an inexperienced person from being robbed by sharpers, who make extensive experiments in this port upon the unwary. When the passengers are on board, the agent, who is always now the president of the Church in the British Islands, proceeds to organize a committee, consist- ing of a president and two counselors, and, if possible, elders are selected who have travelled the route before, or, at least, have been to sea. These men are received by the emigrants by vote, and implicit confidence is reposed in them. The committee then proceed to divide the ship into wards or branches, over each of which an elder or priest is placed, with his assistants, to preside. The president of the company then appoints from among the adult passengers, watch- men, who, in rotation, stand watch day and night over the ship until her depart- ure, and after nightfall prevent any unauthorized person from descending the

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hatchways. When at sea. the presidents of the various wards see that passengers rise about five or six o'clock in the morning, cleanse their respective portions of the ship, and throw the rubbish overboard. This attended to, prayers are offered in every ward, and then the passengers prepare their breakfasts, and during the remainder of the day occupy themselves with various duties. At eight or nine o'clock at night, prayers are again offered, and all retire to their berths. Such regularity and cleanliness, with constant exercise on deck, are an excellent con- servative of the general health of the passengers, a thing proverbial of the Lat- ter-day Saints' emigration. In addition to this daily routine, when the weather permits, meetings are held on Sundays, and twice or thrice in the week, at which the usual Church services are observed. Schools for children and adults are also frequently conducted. When elders are on board who are either going or return- ing to the Valley, and have traveled in foreign countries, they interest the pas- sengers by relating the history of their travels, and describing the scenes they have witnessed, and the vicissitudes through which they have passed. From the John M. Wood, which sailed on the 12th of March, 1854, we have accounts that the Swiss and Italian emigrants studied the English language ; and the English emigrants, the French and Italian languages. In this they were aided by several missionaries from Italy and Switzerland, conversant with those languages. Lec- tures on various subjects also were delivered. These agreeable exercises no doubt break the monotony of a long sea-voyage, and improve the mental capacities of the passengers. The good order, cleanliness, regularity, and moral deportment of the passengers generally, seldom fail to produce a good impression upon the captain, crew and any persons on board who are not Latter-day Saints. The re- sult is, they attend the religious meetings or exercises, and few ships now reach New Orleans without some conversions taking place. In the Olympus, which sailed in March, 1851, fifty persons were added to the Church during the voyage, and in the International, which sailed in February, 1853, forty-eight persons, in- cluding the captain and other officers of the ship, were added. Not the least good resulting from the excellent management of the companies is the relaxation of much rigidity necessarily belonging to captains at sea, and the extension of many a favor to the passengers in times of sickness, and when they can well appreciate the kindness. Most of the vessels sent out have had humane and gentlemanly captains, some of whom have been presented at New Orleans with testimonials from the passengers.

" As an instance of the estimation in which the mode of conducting the I .. D. Saints' emigration is held in high quarters, we quote from Morning Advertiser of June 2. ' On Tuesday, says the London correspondent of the Cambridge In- dependent Press, I heard a rather remarkable examination before a committee of the House of Commons. The witness was no other than the supreme authority in England of the Mormonites, (Elder S. W. Richards), and the subject upon which he was giving information was the mode in which the emigration to Utah, Great Salt Lake, is conducted. * He gave himself no airs but was so respectful in his demeanor, and ready in his answers, that, at the close of his ex- amination he received the thanks of the committee in rather a marked manner.

There is one thing which, in the opinion of the emigration

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committee of the House of Commons, they (the L. D. Saints) can do, viz - teach Christian shipowners how to send poor people decently, cheaply and health- fully across the Atlantic.'

" On arriving at New Orleans, the emigrants are received by an agent of the Church stationed there for that purpose, and he procures suitable steamboats for them to proceed on to St. Louis without detention. Elder James Brown was the agent for the last season. It is the duty of this agent, furthermore, to report to the president of the European mission, the condition in which the emigrants ar- rive, and any important circumstances that may be beneficial to be known to him. At St. Louis, another agent of the Church co-operates with the agent sent from England. From thence the emigrants are forwarded still by steamboat to the camping grounds, which were last year at Keokuk in Iowa, at the foot of the lower rapids of the Mississippi, 205 miles from St. Louis, and this year at Kansas, in Jackson County, Missouri, 14 miles west of Independence. Here the emigrants find the teams which the agent has prepared, waiting to receive them and their luggage. Ten individuals are the number allotted to one wagon and one tert The Perpetual Emigrating Fund Company this year allowed 100 lbs. of luggage, including beds and clothing, to all persons over eight years of age ; 50 lbs. to those between eight and four years old ; none to those under four years. The wagons are procured to order in Cincinnati and St. Louis, and are conveyed by steamboat to the camping grounds. The wagon-bed is about 12 feet long, 3 feet 4 inches wide, and IS inches deep, and boxes should be made to fit to advantage.

" The cattle are purchased of cattle dealers in the western settlements, and are driven to the camping grounds. The full team consists of one wagon, two yoke of oxen and two cows. The wagon-covers and tents are made of a very su- perior twilled cotton, procured in England for the emigration of 1853 and the present year. It is supplied to the emigrants before their departure, and they make the tents and covers on the voyage and thus save expense. A common field tent is generally used. The material is 27 inches wide, and 44 yards are used for a tent, and 26 for a wagon-cover. The two cost about two guineas. The poles and cord are procured by the agent in the United States.

" Each wagon this year containing the £13 and P. E. Fund emigrants was supplied with 1000 lbs. of flour, 50 lbs. of sugar, 50 lbs. of bacon, 50 lbs. of rice, 30 lbs. of beans, 20 lbs. of dried apples and peaches, 5 lbs. of tea, 1 gallon of vinegar, 10 bars of soap and 25 lbs. of salt. These articles and the milk from the cows, the game caught on the plains, and the pure water from the streams, furnish to hundreds better diet, and more of it, than they enjoyed in their native lands while toiling from 10 to 18 hours per day for their living. Other emigrants who have means, of course purchase what they please, such as dried herrings, pickles, molasses, and more dried fruit and sugar, all of which are very useful, and there is every facility for obtaining them from New Orleans to the edge of the plains.

" As soon as a sufficient number of wagons can be got ready, and all things are prepared, the company or companies move off under their respective captains. 'The agent remains on the frontiers until all the companies are started, and then he goes forward himself, passing the companies one by one, and arrives in the

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Valley first to receive them there, and conduct them into Great Salt Lake City. From the review we have taken of the modus operandi of the emigration, although we have merely glanced at the frame-work, it will be readily seen that it is of no ordinary magnitude, but brings into requisition directly and indirectly, the labors of hundreds of individuals besides the emigrants themselves, and at the present time involves an outlay of not less than £40,000 to $50,000 each year, an amount nevertheless small when the number of emigrants and the distance are considered. It is only by the most careful, prudent and economical arrangements that such a number of persons could be transported from their various British and European homes across the Atlantic Ocean, and three thousand miles into the in- terior of America, with such a sum of money."

Of the class and character of the British emigrants to Utah, we quote the following inimitable description from the pen of Charles Dickens :

" BOUND FOR THE GREAT SALT LAKE.

" Behold me on my way to an emigrant ship, on a hot morning early in June. My road lies through that part of London generally known to the in- itiated as " Down by the Docks." × * Gigantic in the basin just beyond the church, looms my emigrant ship : her name, the Amazon. Her figure- head is not disfigured as those beauteous founders of the race of strong·minded women are fabled to have been, for the convenience of drawing the bow; but I sympathize with the carver :

A flattering carver who made it his care To carve busts as they ought to be-not as they were,

My emigrant ship lies broadside-on to the wharf. Two great gangways made of spars and planks connect her with the wharf; and up and down these gang- ways, perpetually crowding to and fro and in and out, like ants, are the emigrants who are going to sail in my emigrant ship. Some with cabbages, some with loaves of bread, some with cheese and butter, some with milk and beer, some with boxes, beds and bundles, some with babies-nearly all with children-nearly all with bran-new tin cans or their daily allowance of water, uncomfortably sugges- tive of a tin flavor in the drink. To and fro, up and down, aboard and ashore, swarming here and there and everywhere, my emigrants. And still as the dock- gate swings upon its hinges, cabs appear, and carts appear, and vans appear, bring- ing more of my emigrants, with more cabbages, more loaves, more cheese and butter, more milk and beer, more boxes, beds and bundles, more tin cans, and on those shipping investments accumulated compound interest of children.

" I go aboard my emigrant ship. I go first to the great cabin, and find it in the usual condition of a cabin at that pass. Perspiring landsmen, with loose papers, and with pens and inkstands, pervade it ; and the general appearance of things is as if the late Mr. Amazon's funeral had just come home from the cemetery, and the disconsolate Mrs. Amazon's trustees found the affairs in great disorder, and were looking high and low for the will. I go out on the poop-deck, for air, and surveying the emigrants on the deck below (indeed they are crowded all about me, up there too), find more pens and inkstands in action, and more papers, and interminable complication respecting accounts with individuals for tin cans and

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what not. But nobody is in an ill-temper, nobody is the worse for drink, nobody swears an oath or uses a coarse word, nobody appears depressed, nobody is weep- ing, and down upon the deck in every corner where it is possible to find a few square feet to kneel, crouch, or lie in, people, in every unsuitable attitude for writing, are writing letters.

" Now, I have seen emigrant ships before this day in June. And these peo- ple are so strikingly different from all other people in like circumstance whom I have ever seen, that I wonder aloud : ' What would a stranger suppose these emi- grants to be !'

" The vigilant bright face of the weather-browned captain of the Amazon is at my shoulder, and he says, 'What, indeed ! The most of these came aboard yesterday evening. They came from various parts of England in small parties that had never seen one another before. Yet they had not been a couple of hours on board, when they established their own police, made their own regulations, and set their own watches at all the hatchways. Before nine o'clock, the ship was as orderly and quiet as a man- of-war.'

" I looked about me again, and saw the letter-writing going on with the most curious composure. Perfectly abstracted in the midst of the crowd ; while great casks were swinging aloft, and being lowered into the liold ; while hot agents were hurrying up and down, adjusting the interminable accounts ; while two hundred strangers were searching everywhere for two hundred other strangers, and were asking questions about them of two hundred more ; while the children played up and down all the steps, and in and out among all the people's legs, and were be- held, to the general dismay, toppling over all the dangerous places ; the letter- writers wrote on calmly. On the starboard side of the ship, a grizzled man dic- tated a long letter to another grizzled man in an immense fur cap; which letter was of so profound a quality, that it became necessary for the amanuensis at inter- vals to take off his fur cap in both his hands, for the ventilation of his brain, and

stare at him who dictated. as a man of many mysteries who was worth looking at. On the larboard side, a woman had covered a belaying.pin with a white cloth to make a neat desk of it, and was sitting on a little box, writing with the delibera- tion of a bookkeeper. Down upon her breast on the planks of the deck at this woman's feet. with her head diving in under a beam of the bulwarks on that side, as an eligible place of refuge for her sheet of paper, a neat and pretty girl wrote for a good hour (she fainted at last), only rising to the surface occasionally for a dip of ink. Alongside the boat, close to me on the poop-deck, another girl, a fresh well-grown country girl, was writing another letter on the bare deck. Later in the day, when this self-same boat was filled with a choir who sang glees and catches for a long time, one of the singers, a girl, sang her part mechanically all the while, and wrote a letter in the bottom of the boat while doing so.

" ' A stranger would be puzzled to guess the right name for these people, Mr. Uncommercial,' says the captain.

" ' Indeed he would.'

"""" If you hadn't known, could you ever have supposed ---? '

" ' How could I ! I should have said they were in their degree, the pick and flower of England.'

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" ' So should I,' says the captain.

" ' How many are they ?'

" ' Eight hundred in rouud numbers.'

" I went between-decks, where the families with children swarmed in the dark, where unavoidable confusion had been caused by the last arrivals, and where the confusion was increased by the little preparations for dinner that were going on in each group. A few women here and there, had got lost, and were laughing at it, and were asking their way to their own people, or out on deck again. A few of the poor children were crying ; but otherwise the universal cheerfulness was amazing. ' We shall shake down by to-morrow.' ' We shall come all right in a day or so.' ' We shall have more light at sea.' Such phrases I heard every- where, as I groped my way among chests and barrels and beams and unstowed cargo and ring-bolts and emigrants, down to the lower deck, and thence up to the light of day again, and to my former station.

" Surely an extraordinary people in their power of self-abstraction. All the former letter-writers were still writing calmly, and many more letter-writers had broken out in my absence. A boy with a bag of books in his hand and a slate under his arm, emerged from below, concentrated himself in my neighborhood (espying a convenient skylight for his purpose), and went to work at a sum as if he were stone deaf. A father and mother and several young children, on the main deck below me, had formed a family circle close to the foot of the crowded rest- less gangway, where the children made a nest for themselves in a coil of rope, and the father and mother, she suckling the youngest, discussed family affairs as peace- ably as if they were in perfect retirement. I think the most noticeable character- istic in the eight hundred as a mass, was their exemption from hurry.

" Eight hundred what ? 'Geese, villain ?' Eight hundred Mormons. I, Un- commercial Traveler for the firm of Human Interest Brothers, had come aboard this emigrant ship to see what eight hundred Latter-day Saints were like, and I found them (to the rout and overthrow of all my . expectations) like what I now describe with scrupulous exactness.

" The Mormon agent who had been active in getting them together, and in making the contract with my friends the owners of the ship to take them as far as New York on their way to the Great Salt Lake, was pointed out to me. A com- pactly-made handsome man in black, rather short, with rich brown hair and beard, and clear bright eyes. From his speech, I should set him down as an American. Probably, a man who had ' knocked about the world ' pretty much. A man with a frank open manner, and unshrinking look ; withal a man of great quickness. I believe he was wholly ignorant of my Uncommercial individuality, and consequently of my immense Uncommercial importance.

" Uncommercial. These are a very fine set of people you have brought to. gether here.

" Mormon Agent. Yes, sir, they are a very fine set of people.

" Uncommercial (looking about). Indeed, I think it would be difficult to find eight hundred people together anywhere else, and find so much beauty and so much strength and capacity for work among them.

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HISTORY OF SALT LAKE CITY.

" Mormon Agent (not looking about, but looking steadily at Uncommercial). I think so-We sent about a thousand more, yes'day, from Liverpool.

" Uncommercial. You are not going with these emigrants ?

" Mormon Agent. No, sir. I remain.

But you have been in the Mormon Territory ?

" Uncommercial. Yes ; I left Utah about three years ago.

" Mormon Agent. " Uncommercial. It is surprising to me that these people are all so cheery, and make so little of the immense distance before them.

" Mormon Agent. Well, you see, many of 'em have friends out at Utah, and many of 'em look forward to meeting friends on the way.

"' Uncommercial. On the way ?

" Mormon Agent. This way 'tis. This ship lands 'em in New York City. Then they go on by rail right away beyond St. Louis, to that part of the banks of the Missouri where they strike the plains. There, wagons from the settlement meet 'em to bear 'em company on their journey 'cross-twelve hundred miles about. Industrious people who come out to the settlement soon get wagons of their own, and so the friends of some of these will come down in their own wagons to meet 'em. They look forward to that greatly.

" Uncommercial. On their long journey across the desert, do you arm them?

" Mormon Agent. Mostly you would fine they have arms of some kind or another already with them. Such as had not arms we should arm across the plains, for the general protection and defense.

" Uncommercial. Will these wagons bring down any produce to the Missouri ?

" Mormon Agent. Well, since the war broke out, we've taken to growing cotton, and they'll hkely bring down cotton to be exchanged for machinery. We want machinery. Also we have taken to growing indigo, which is a fine commo- dity for profit. It has been found that the climate on the further side of the Great Salt Lake suits well for raising indigo.

" Uncommercial. I am told that these people now on board are principally from the south of England.

" Mormon Agent. And from Wales. That's true.

" Uncommercial. Do you get many Scotch ?

" Mormon Agent. Not many.

" Uncommercial. Highlanders, for instance.

" Mormon Agent. No, not Highlanders. They ain't interested enough in universal brotherhood and peace and good will.

" Uncommercial. The old fighting blood is strong in them ?

" Mormon Agent. Well, yes. And besides, they've no faith.

" Uncommercial (who has been burning to get at the Prophet Joe Smith, and seems to discover an opening). Faith in-

" Mormon Agent (far too many for Uncommercial). Well-in anything.

" Similarly on this same head, the Uncommercial underwent discomfiture from a Wiltshire laborer ; a simple, fresh-colored farm-laborer, of eight·and- thirty, who at one time stood beside him looking on at new arrivals, and with whom he held this dialogue :

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" Uncommercial. Would you mind my asking you what part of the country you come from ?

" Wiltshire. Not a bit. Theer ! (exultingly) I've worked all my life o' Sal- isbury Plain, right under the shadder o' Stonehenge. You mightn't think it, but I haive.

" Uncommercial. And a pleasant country, too.

" Wiltshire. Ah ! 'Tis a pleasant country.

" Uncommercial. Have you any family on board ?

" Wiltshire. Two children, boy and gal. I am a widderer, I am, and I'm going out alonger my boy and gal. That's my gal, and she's a fine gal o' sixteen (pointing out the girl who is writing by the boat). I'll go and fetch my boy. I'd like to show you my boy. (Here Wiltshire disappears, and presently comes back with a big shy boy of twelve, in a superabundance of boots, who is not at all glad to be presented.) He is a fine boy too, and a boy fur to work. (Boy hav- ing undutifully bolted, Wiltshire drops him.)

" Uncommercial. It must cost you a great deal of money to go so far, three strong.

" Wiltshire. A power of money. Theer ! Eight shillen a week, eight shillen a week, eight shillen a week, put by out of the week's wages for ever so long.

" Uncommercial. I wonder how you did it.

" Wiltshire (recognising in this a kindred spirit). See theer now ! I won- der how I done it ! But what with a bit o' subscription heer, and what with a bit o' help theer, it were done at last, though I don't hardly know how. Then it were unfor'net for us, you see, as we got kep' in Bristol so long -nigh a fortnight, it were-on accounts of a mistake wi' Brother Halliday. Swaller'd up money, it did, when we might have come straight on.

" Uncommercial (delicately approaching Joe Smith). You are of the Mor- mon religion, of course ?

" Wiltshire (confidently). O, yes, I'm a Mormon. (Then reflectively.) I'm a Mormon. (Then, looking round the ship, feigns to descry a particular friend in an empty spot, and evades the Uncommercial for evermore.)

" After a noontide pause for dinner, during which my emigrants were nearly all between-decks and the Amazon looked deserted, a general muster took place. The muster was for the ceremony of passing the government inspector and the doctor. Those authorities held their temporary state amidships, by a cask or two; and, knowing that the whole eight hundred emigrants must come face to face with them, I took my station behind the two. They knew nothing whatever of me, I believe, and my testimony to the unpretending gentleness and good nature with which they discharged their duty, may be of the greater worth. There was not the slightest flavor of the Circumlocution Office about their proceedings.

" The emigrants were now all on deck. They were densely crowded aft, and swarmed upon the poop-deck like bees. Two or three Mormon agents stood ready to hand them on to the inspector, and to hand them forward when they had passed. By what successful means, a special aptitude for organization had been infused into these people, I am, of course, unable to report. But I know that, even now, there was no disorder, hurry or difficulty.

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History of Salt Lake City, Part 85

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