History of Utah, Part 2

Author: Whitney, Orson Ferguson
Publication date: 1892
Publisher: Salt Lake City, Cannon
Number of Pages: 1026

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Note: The text from this book was generated using artificial intelligence so there may be some errors. The full pages can be found on Archive.org (link on the Part 1 page).

JOHN M. BERNHISEL 458

WILLARD RICHARDS 231

WILLIAM C. STAINES 483

WILLIAM MILLER

236

WILLIAM JENNINGS 500

GEORGE A. SMITH

250

ALONZO H. RALEIGH 502

LEVI RICHARDS 260

JESSE W. Fox 504

WILFORD WOODRUFF 298

TRUMAN O. ANGELL 506

AMASA M. LYMAN 300

302

DIMICK B. HUNTINGTON 526

ELLEN S. KIMBALL

306

JOHN NEBEKER 529

FIRST GLIMPSE OF "THE VALLEY"

322

JOHN NEFF

548

ERASTUS SNOW -

330

ABRAHAM O. SMOOT 567

JOHN PACK -

334

JOHN R. MURDOCK 586

LORENZO D. YOUNG -

338

FERAMORZ LITTLE

596

CAPTAIN JAMES BROWN

344

NICHOLAS GROESBECK 598

CHARLES C. RICH

348

SILVER LAKE 600

JOHN YOUNG 358

LAKE MARTHA 60-

DANIEL SPENCER

360

LAKE BLANCHE - 608

JOSEPH HORNE 362

DANIEL H. WELLS 619

JOSEPH B. NOBLE

364

JAMES FERGUSON 622

JACOB HOUTZ 366

ROBERT T. BURTON 626

HARRIET PAGE WHEELER YOUNG 368

ANDREW CUNNINGHAM 630

PEREGRINE G. SESSIONS 372

J. D. T. MCALLISTER 640

JOHN STOKER 374

EDWIN D. WOOLLEY 648

LORIN FARR

376

JOHN R. WINDER 661

HORACE S. ELDREDGE 384

SAMUEL W. RICHARDS 666

CHARLES CRISMON

386

COLONEL THOMAS L. KANE 674

EDWARD HUNTER 416 REUBEN MILLER 710

ANSON CALL 522

WILLIAM CLAYTON 310

SALT LAKE CITY IN 1853 530

THE PIONEER ROUTE, 1847

318

LEONARD W. HARDY 542

GREAT SALT LAKE VALLEY, 1847

325

JEDEDIAH M. GRANT 564

CLARA D. YOUNG

HISTORY OF UTAH.

CHAPTER I.

1805-1827.

ANTECEDENTS OF UTAH'S EARLY SETTLERS-JOSEPH SMITH AND MORMONISM-THE PROPHET'S BIRTH AND BOYHOOD-SOCIAL AND RELIGIOUS PHASES OF SEVENTY YEARS AGO-SEEKING FOR THE TRUE CHURCH-JOSEPH'S FIRST VISION-THE FATHER AND THE SON-FORBIDDEN TO JOIN ANY OF THE CHURCHES-THE YOUTH TELLS HIS STORY - PREJUDICE AND PERSECUTION-THE ANGEL MORONI-DISCOVERY OF THE GOLDEN PLATES-THE PROPHET ON PROBATION-THE RECORD OF MORMON, THE NEPHITE, IN THE HANDS OF JOSEPH, THE TRANSLATOR.

IS IT would be natural, in describing a lake or large body of water, to give some account of the origin, course and character of the streams flowing into and forming it, so is it expected of the historian, who describes a city or country and its inhabitants, to dwell to some extent upon their antecedents, to speak of the sources whence they sprang. The history of Utah, therefore, must include the history of her founders, and with their general narrative, as a religious community, it now suits our purpose to begin.

In the early part of the present century, in the little town of Sharon, Windsor County, Vermont, there lived an humble family of the name of Smith. Joseph and Lucy were the parents' names, and their children, seven sons and three daughters-some born prior, some subsequent to the time of which we write-were Alvin, Hyrum, Sophronia, Joseph, Samuel H., Ephraim, William, Catharine, Don Carlos and Lucy. The father was a farmer, though not a flourishing one, having lately lost his property through the dishonesty of a trusted friend, and was now renting a farm in Sharon, and toiling 2-VOL. 1.

HISTORY OF UTAH.

early and late for a bare livelihood. They were a God-fearing folk, honest, straightforward in their dealings, and of good repute among their neighbors.

It was on the 23rd of December, 1805, that the son was born to whom was given the paternal name. This son, Joseph Smith, junior, was the famous Mormon Prophet, the founder of the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints.

The boy was about ten years old when his parents migrated from Vermont and made their home at Palmyra, Ontario-now Wayne -County, New York ; whence they removed, four years later. to Man- chester in the same county.

A brief glance at some of the social conditions of those early times and primitive places may here be necessary. Western New York, the arena of our story's immediate action, was then an almost new country. Farm and forest, society and solitude, civilization and semi-savagery divided it. The red man, though no longer roaming wildly, had not disappeared from its borders, and the whites, who of course predominated and held sway, if, like all Yankees, shrewd and intelligent, were mostly illiterate and untaught. The masses were poor, but there were farmers and artisans who were prosperous, and the people, as a rule, were industrious and provident. Their style of living was exceedingly plain. Houses were usually small, unplas- tered, unpainted and rudely furnished. A huge fire on the hearth, fed with pine knots from the neighboring forest, gave light and warmth to those within the house, or the flickering flame of the tal- low-dip shed its uncertain lustre over the scene. The floors were often without carpets, the tables without cloths, and the frugal meal, cooked amid the glowing embers on the hearth, or in the iron pot suspended by a chain from the chimney hook, was eaten from pewter or wooden plates, with horn-handled knives and iron spoons. Clocks were a rarity, the "time o' day" being commonly "guessed" by the sun ; pictures and musical instruments were few and of inferior kind, and the family library consisted, in most instances, of the Bible, an almanac and what books were in vogue at the village school. In

HISTORY OF UTAH.

short, it was just such a social condition as life in our own Utah once presented, and in rare cases yet presents, in sparsely settled localities, where primitive taste or poverty still reigns.

The people of those times, or at any rate of that region, were generally religious, and were great Bible readers : though many spirit- ually inclined and well versed in scripture, were neither communi- cants nor church-goers. The leading secis of today were nearly all represented in the ecclesiastical category of the period, each having its doughty champions, its Davids in the field, armed cap-a-pie and confronting with valorous zeal the gigantic Philistines of sin and unbelief. The infidel, however, did not abound, as at a later day. Nearly every one professed some sort of religion. Religion, indeed, and not agnosticism, was the fashion and flavor of the times. Yet the tide of spiritual thought and emotion, like any other tide, was subject to the extremes of ebb and flow.

Soon after the removal of the Smith family to Manchester, a wave of religious excitement, of a character common to the period, began rolling over the land, and camp-meetings and revivals, like bubbles on the crest of the mighty billow, were held far and near under the auspices of the various Christian sects. The whole region rang and resounded with the echoing notes of the evangelic trumpet. The village of Manchester shared in the general excitement and enthu- siasm,-Methodists, Baptists, Presbyterians, etc., all vieing with each other in the work of "soul-saving," and crowds of converts flocking to the standards of the ministers of the rival faiths. Among the proselytes made by the Presbyterians were Lucy Smith, Joseph's mother, his brothers Hyrum and Samuel, and his sister Sophronia.

Fruitful as were the labors of the revivalists, however, one thing militated against their further success. It was lack of unity. They were not united ; either in doctrine, sentiment or common Christian feeling. Divisions in doctrine among the Christian churches were neither shocking nor surprising ; from the days of Wycliffe. Luther . and Wesley the world had grown used to such things ; and so long as modern Christians merely differed in opinion regarding the "one Lord,

HISTORY OF UTAH.

one faith, one baptism" of the ancients, and were careful to "love one another " and " avoid disputations," their course would occasion little comment and less complaint.

But strife and hatred among professed ministers of Christ, while provoking mirth and mockery from the infidel, are to all good Christ- ians horrifying. And such things, sad to tell, were manifested by the ministers of whom we are speaking, and by many of their converts as well, and deprecated and deplored by divers thoughtful and pious minds, who consequently stood aloof and forbore to taste of the fountains that sent forth such bitter waters.

In matters of doctrine, as said, the sects were much divided,- though on certain points agreed. For instance, some held, as now, that the ordinance of baptism was non-essential to salvation. Others contended that it was essential. Some claimed sprinkling to be the proper mode of baptism; others, that pouring water upon the head was the true method, and others still that immersion of the whole body in the liquid element was necessary. And similar differences in other doctrines. The main points upon which most of the sects agreed were : that God was a being without body, parts or passions ; that He no longer communicated His will to man; that the heavens were closed and the canon of scripture full; that the days of miracles and revelations were over; that faith without works was sufficient to save, and that all who died without hearing of or believing in Jesus Christ as the world's Redeemer, were doomed to never-ending torment. Even infants were not exempt, according to the Calvinistic creed, but were fated to eternally "roast in sulphur," if the Almighty had seen fit to cut short their lives ere they came to the knowledge of His only begotten Son. A chaos, a Babel of religi- ous opinions and their professors, differing, yet all claiming to be right, and to have the Bible as their basis of belief and source of inspiration ; a ceaseless clash and war of words in support of those opinions. Such in brief was the spiritual condition of the Christian world at the period of which we are writing.

Among those who stood aloof, surveying the scene of strife,

HISTORY OF UTAH.

wondering which of all these wrangling sects was the true Church of Christ, was Joseph Smith, the farmer's boy, then a little over fourteen years of age. Anxious for his soul's salvation,-for he was a thoughtful and conscientious lad,-he much desired to know the true way, in order that he might walk therein. Unable to solve the prob- lem, though feeling assured that the contending churches were not all divine, he forbore to join with any, but attended their meetings as often as convenient, particularly those of the Methodists, to whom he was somewhat partial.

One day, he relates, while reading the scriptures, his eye chanced to rest upon the fifth verse of the first chapter of the Epistle of James, running as follows : "If any of you lack wisdom, let him ask of God, that giveth to all men liberally, and upbraideth not, and it shall be given him." The sacred words sank deeply into the boy's simple soul. He did "lack wisdom," wisdom to know the truth ; and he would "ask of God," who had thus promised, by His ancient apostle, to hear and answer prayer. Such was his simple faith. Such was his earnest resolve.

Joseph's record then relates how on a bright spring morning in the year 1820, he retired to the woods,-a sylvan solitude not far from his father's home,-and finding himself alone, bowed down in prayer. It was his first attempt to orally address Deity. He had scarcely begun, he declares, when suddenly he was seized by some mysterious power which paralyzed his tongue so that he could no longer speak. Simul- taneously a cloud of darkness encompassed him, filling his soul with horror and presaging instant destruction. So literal were his sensa- tions that he felt himself in the fell grasp of some actual, though unseen, personage or influence of another world. Exerting all his powers, he called upon God for deliverance-his thoughts now pray- ing in the absence of speech-and just as reason seemed tottering, and hope was hovering on the brink of despair, he saw a light descending from heaven, directly over his head, of such surpassing brilliance as to exceed that of the noon-day sun. The pillar of splen- dor gradually fell until it rested upon the prostrate youth, who, the

HISTORY OF UTAH.

moment it appeared, found himself delivered from the deadly influ- ence that had held him bound. In the midst of the pillar were two personages of ineffable glory, in the form of men, one of whom, addressing Joseph by name, and pointing to the other, said, "This is my beloved Son, hear him !"

The amazed and enraptured youth, so soon as he could collect his thoughts and command utterance, recalling the object of his quest, asked of the glorious oracles which of all the religious sects was right, and which one should he join ? To his astonishment he was told that none of them were right, and that he must not unite with any; that their creeds were an abomination and their professors corrupt ; that they taught for doctrine the commandments of men, drawing near to the Lord with their lips while their hearts were far from Him, and having a form of godliness but denying the power thereof. Again forbidding him to join any of the churches, the two personages withdrew, the pillar of light ascended and vanished, and the rapt youth, recovering from his vision's ecstacy, found himself lying upon his back gazing up into heaven.

Naturally enough, the boy's story, being told, and its truth per- sisted in-and that, too, with every evidence of solemn sincerity- created no small sensation. Some were amazed, some simply amused at its audacity ; others horror-stricken at its blasphemy,-for such it seemed to them. In the midst of a generation which doubted and · even denied the Creator's personality, applying to Him, in thought if not in word, Pope's eloquent definition of the all-pervading Spirit, which

Warms in the sun, refreshes in the breeze, Glows in the stars and blossoms in the trees, Lives through all life, extends through all extent, Spreads undivided, operates unspent,

he, an untutored lad, had had the temerity to assert, in full face of the teachings and traditions of the sects and schools, that God the universal Father was a man, a living. breathing, glorified man, and that God the Son was a man also, made, like other men. in the image

HISTORY OF UTAH.

of that Father's person .* Moreover, that he had both seen and heard them. The idea was preposterous-blasphemous ! It was a matter- . of-fact, even skeptical age,-skeptical as to modern miracles and spirit- ual manifestations,-that Joseph Smith confronted, and such a tale, however sincerely told, was altogether too marvelous for belief. Such an event was very much too literal to suit the temper of the times. To speak of Christ's coming to earth at some future period was one thing; to claim that He had already come, and had appeared to so insignificant a person as young "Joe Smith" was quite another thing. The fellow must be mad, or else a wicked and designing imposter. So thought that generation-so thinks this-with comparatively few exceptions.

Joseph had a friend, a Methodist minister, prominent in the religious movement then agitating the neighborhood. To him, among the first, he confided his story, thinking that his clerical friend would rejoice at the recital. In this, however, he was disappointed. The minister treated the matter with utter contempt, flatly telling him that it was " all of the devil;" that there were no such things now as visions and revelations, that they had all ceased with the Apostles, and that the world would never have any more of them.

But the matter did not end there. With the usual zeal of the heretic-hunter, the minister, forgetting his former friendship for the boy, went about prejudicing the minds of his fellow preachers and the people against him. The result was that the lad, who had formerly been a favorite with the preachers, suddenly found himself an object of their distrust and derision,-the target of their bitterest scorn. Continuing to affirm the truth of his tale, prejudice increased, and the arrows of persecution began falling around him. The preachers and professors, so disunited before, all united now upon one point,-to deride and denounce "Joe Smith the imposter." Nay, more; his very life was attempted by the bullet of the ambushed assassin. Still, said he, "I had seen a vision. I knew it, and I knew

* "God Himself was once as we are now, and is an exalted man, and sits enthroned in yonder heavens."-JOSEPH SMITH.

HISTORY OF UTAH.

that God knew it, and I could not deny it; at least I knew that by so doing I would offend God, and come under condemnation."

Three years elapsed, and still this strange boy,-for strange he must have seemed,-scorned and buffeted and belied, steadfastly main- tained his testimony. Driven from the ranks of the religious and respectable because of his convictions, he was often forced for com- panionship, which his genial and kindly nature craved, into society not the most select, and was led in the way of temptations which he did not always resist. During those days he did things, as he candidly confesses, that were " offensive in the sight of God." Self- condemned for his youthful follies, accusing conscience finally drove him to seek forgiveness of his Maker, and implore a fresh proof of his "state and standing before Him."

For what followed in his experience we again refer to his own record, which necessarily forms the principal basis of this portion of our narrative. It was the night of September 21st, 1823. Joseph, retiring to rest, began pleading with the heavens and pouring out his soul in penitent supplication. While so engaged he saw ;a light appearing in his room, increasing in brilliance until brighter than the blaze of noon-day. Immediately a glorious being, clad in a loose robe of radiant whiteness, his countenance lustrous as lightning, stood at his bedside, his feet seemingly resting on air. The head, neck, hands and feet were bare, and the body, wherever exposed, of all but transparent purity. He called the youth by name, and giving his own name as Moroni, proclaimed himself a messenger from the presence of God. He told Joseph that the Lord had a work for him to do, and that his name should be spoken both well and evil of among all nations; showed him in vision where there was a record deposited, written upon plates of gold, giving an account of the ancient inhabitants of America and their origin, and containing the fullness of the Everlasting Gospel as delivered by the Savior to those inhabitants; also that an instrument called the Urim and Thummim, consisting of two stones set in a silver bow and fastened to a breast- plate, was deposited with the plates, having been prepared by the

HISTORY OF UTAH.

Almighty for the purpose of the book's translation. The angel then quoted from the scriptures various prophecies relating to the restora- tion of the Gospel and the Priesthood, the setting up of Messiah's latter-day kingdom and the ushering in of the Millennium. These prophecies,-including part of the third and all of the fourth chapters of Malachi, the eleventh chapter of Isaiah, the twenty-second and twenty-third verses of the third chapter of Acts, and the last five verses of the second chapter of Joel,-he said were about to be ful- filled. He also declared that "the fullness of the Gentiles" would soon come in. He warned the youth that when he obtained posses- sion of the plates, he must not show them to any save those to whom he should be commanded to show them,-otherwise he should be destroyed. Having delivered his message the angel departed, ascend- ing by what seemed "a conduit opening right up into heaven," and the room made radiant by his presence again grew dark. But while musing and marveling over this visitation, with its new and strange revealings, Joseph saw the light returning. In an instant the same messenger stood at his bedside. Rehearsing without the least varia- tion the things before related, the oracle added that great and grievous judgments, desolations by famine, sword and pestilence were coming upon the earth in this generation. Again he departed, but still again returned, and after repeating his former message, cautioned the youth against giving way to a mercenary spirit that would tempt him, owing to the poverty of his father's family, to obtain the plates for purposes of worldly gain. This he must not attempt to do, but seek only to glorify God and build up his kingdom. A third time the messenger vanished, when almost immediately the village cock crew, and the first faint streaks of dawn shot athwart the eastern horizon.

From loss of sleep and the severe strain upon his physical pow- ers, incident to his extraordinary experience, Joseph, going into the field to labor that day, found himself exhausted and utterly unable to toil. Noticing his condition, his father, who was near, bade him return to the house and rest. He attempted to obey, but in crossing the fence from out the field his strength completely failed, and he

HISTORY OF UTAH.

fell helpless and unconscious to the ground. A voice calling him by name aroused him. He looked, and lo! the angel messenger of the past night standing above him in a halo of glory. For the fourth time Moroni delivers his message, which now burns as in letters of fire upon the young man's mind, then bids him return to his father and tell him all. Joseph obeys, his sire declares it to be divine, and directs him to go and do all that the angel has commanded.

Accordingly, as the record continues, he set out for the spot where he had been shown the plates were deposited. It was a hill, two or three miles from the village of Manchester. "On the west side of this hill," says he, "not far from the top, under a stone of considerable size, lay the plates deposited in a stone box; this stone was thick and rounding in the middle on the upper side, and thinner towards the edges, so that the middle part of it was visible above the ground, but the edges all round were covered with earth. Having removed the earth and obtained a lever, which I got fixed under the edge of the stone, with a little exertion I raised it up; I looked in and there indeed did I behold the plates, the Urim and Thummim and the breast-plate, as stated by the messenger. The box in which they lay was formed by placing stones together in some kind of cement. In the bottom of the box were laid two stones cross-ways of the box, and on these stones lay the plates and the other things with them."

Attempting to possess himself of the box's contents, Joseph finds himself restrained, and at that moment the angel who has directed him thither appears and forbids him to touch them. Four years, he is informed, must elapse before the season will be ripe and the records delivered into his hands. Meantime he must lead a godly life, and visit the hill once a year, until the four years' term has expired ; then and there to be further taught in relation to his prophetic mission. Much more does the angel unfold,-among other thing that he. Moroni, while living in the flesh, was the last of a line of prophets who ministered to an ancient people called Nephites, who inhabited this land ; that he was the son of Mormon, a Nephite prophet, general and historian, whose record it is that there lies deposited, where

HISTORY OF UTAH.

Moroni, divinely directed, hid it fourteen centuries before ; that this hill was called by the Nephites Cumorah, but to the Jaredites, their historic predecessors, it had been known as the hill Ramah. Having finished his course of counsel and admonition, the messenger departs, and the youth, after carefully covering the box containing the records and replacing the surrounding soil, seeks his home to tell to the astonished household the marvelous things revealed by the heavenly messenger. Unlike the minister in whom he formerly confided, they believe his words and rejoice in his strange and wondrous story.

Agreeable to his instructions, Joseph, at the end of each year, or on the 22nd of each of the four succeeding Septembers, repairs to the hill Cumorah, meets and receives further teachings from Moroni. Finally, at the end of the fourth year-September 22nd, 1827-the angel custodian of the golden plates and the Urim and Thummim delivers the ancient relics into his keeping.

HISTORY OF UTAH.

CHAPTER II. 1827-1830.

TRANSLATION OF THE BOOK OF MORMON-POVERTY AND PERSECUTION-THE " MONEY-DIGGING" AND "WIFE-STEALING" STORIES-MARTIN HARRIS-THE PROPHET REMOVES TO PENNSYL- VANIA-DESCRIPTION OF THE PLATES AND THE URIM AND THUMMIM-MARTIN HARRIS AND PROFESSOR ANTHON-THE REPUTED METHOD OF TRANSLATION-THE STOLEN MANUSCRIPT- OLIVER COWDERY-JOHN THE BAPTIST AND THE AARONIC PRIESTHOOD-BAPTISM OF JOSEPH AND OLIVER-JOSEPH KNIGHT'S BENEFICENCE-DAVID WHITMER-JOSEPH AND OLIVER REMOVE FROM HARMONY TO FAYETTE-THE MELCHISEDEK PRIESTHOOD-THE THREE WIT- NESSES-THE EIGHT-THE TRANSLATION COMPLETE AND THE BOOK OF MORMON GIVEN TO THE WORLD.

12 OT for some months, according to Joseph, after receiving the golden plates, was he enabled to begin the task of their trans- lation. In the first place he was very poor, and having married, was obliged to labor more diligently than ever for his daily bread. In the next place he was constantly harassed by enemies.

He tells that while on his way home with the plates, he was repeatedly set upon by unknown men, who strove to wrest them from him. Once they dealt him a severe blow with a bludgeon. Thanks to his superior strength, for he was now a stalwart youth of nearly twenty-two, and aided as he believed by the Almighty, he success- fully withstood his assailants, and finally reached home in safety. But his enemies did not rest. Falsehood like a flood pursued him, and the waves of prejudice rose higher and higher. The house in which he lived was beset by mobs; armed assassins lay in wait for him and shot at him as he passed; robbers broke into his rooms to carry off the records, and every means imaginable, both of force and strategy, was vainly employed to get them from him.

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History of Utah, Part 2

Author: Whitney, Orson Ferguson Publication date: 1892 Publisher: Salt Lake City, Cannon Number of Pages: 1026

Author: Whitney, Orson Ferguson
Publication date: 1892
Publisher: Salt Lake City, Cannon
Number of Pages: 1026