USA > Utah > History of Utah > Part 22
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remove from this county previous to the recent disturbances ; that we now have four com- panies organized, of one hundred families each, and six more companies now organizing of the same number each, preparatory to removal. That one thou- sand families, including the Twelve, the High Council, the Trustees and general authorities of the Church, are fully determined to remove in the spring, independent of the contingency of selling our property, and that this company will comprise from five to six thousand souls.
That the Church, as a body, desires to remove with us, and will, if sales can be effected, so as to raise the necessary means.
That the organization of the Church we represent is such, that there never can exist but one head or presidency at any one time, and all good members wish to be with the organization ; and all are determined to remove to some distant point where we shall neither infringe nor be infringed upon, so soon as time and means will permit.
That we have some hundreds of farms and some two thousand or more houses for sale in this city and county, and we request all good citizens to assist in the disposal of our property.
That we do not expect to find purchasers for our Temple and other public buildings ; but we are willing to rent them to a respectable community who may inhabit the city.
That we wish it distinctly understood, that, although we may not find purchasers for our property, we will not sacrifice or give it away, or suffer it illegally to be wrested from us.
That we do not intend to sow any wheat this fall, and should we all sell we shall not put in any more crops of any description.
That as soon as practicable we will appoint committees for this city, La Harpe, Macedonia, Bear Creek, and all necessary places in the county, to give information to purchasers.
That if these testimonies are not sufficient to satisfy any people that we are in earnest, we will soon give them a sign that cannot be mistaken-we will leave them !
In behalf of the Council, respectfully yours, etc.,
WILLARD RICHARDS, Clerk.
BRIGHAM YOUNG, President.
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CHAPTER XV.
1845-1847.
THE EXODUS-BRIGHAM YOUNG LEADS HIS PEOPLE WESTWARD-SUGAR CREEK-SAMUEL BRAN- NAN AND THE SHIP "BROOKLYN "-GARDEN GROVE AND MOUNT PISGAH-THE SAINTS REACH THE MISSOURI RIVER-THE MEXICAN WAR AND THE MORMON BATTALION-ELDER LITTLE AND PRESIDENT POLK-COLONEL KANE-MORE ANTI-MORMON DEMONSTRATIONS- THE BATTLE OF NAUVOO-EXPULSION OF THE MORMON REMNANT
FROM THE CITY- COLONEL KANE'S DESCRIPTION OF NAUVOO-THE CHURCH IN THE WILDERNESS-WINTER QUARTERS.
URSUANT to the terms of the agreement, which satisfied General Hardin and his associate commissioners, and appeased for a time the anti-Mormons, preparations went forward all during the fall and winter for the spring exodus. Houses and lands in and around Nauvoo were sold, leased or abandoned. Wagons by hundreds were purchased or manufactured, and horses, mules, oxen, riding, draft and pack animals in general, procured in large numbers. Clothing, bedding, provisions, tents, tools, household goods, family relics and camp equipage composed the lading, wherewith animals and vehicles were packed and loaded until little or no room remained.
At length, all being ready for a start, on the 4th of February, 1846, the exodus of the Mormons from Illinois began. Charles Shumway, afterwards one of the original Utah pioneers, was the first to cross the Mississippi. Colonel Hosea Stout with a strong force of police had charge of the ferries, which were kept busy night and day until the river froze over. The companies then crossed on the ice. By the middle of February a thousand souls, with their wagons, teams and effects had been landed on the Iowa shore.
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Sugar Creek, nine miles westward, was made the rendezvous and starting-point of the great overland pilgrimage. Here the advance companies pitched their tents, and awaited the coming of their leaders. The weather was bitter cold, the ground snow-covered and frozen, and the general prospect before the pilgrims so cheerless and desolate as to have dismayed souls less trustful in Providence, less inured to hardship and suffering than they. It was February 5th that the first camp formed on Sugar Creek. That night-a bitter night-nine wives became mothers; nine children were born in tents and wagons in that wintry camp. How these tender babes, these sick and delicate women were cared for under such conditions, is left to the imagination of the sensitive reader. How these Mormon exiles, outcasts of civilization, carrying their aged, infirm and help- less across the desolate plains and prairies, were tracked and trailed thereafter by the nameless graves of their dead, is a tale which, though often attempted, has never been and never will be fully told .**
On the 15th of February, Brigham Young, the leading spirit of the exodus, arrived at the camps on Sugar Creek. He was accom- panied by Willard Richards and George A. Smith, with their families. Two days later Heber C. Kimball and Bishop Whitney joined them. Parley P. Pratt, who had returned from the east, was already there, but encamped at some distance from the main body. Other leading men, such as had not preceded these, soon followed. After the final departure of the Apostles from Nauvoo, Church affairs at that place
* " There is no parallel in the world's history to this migration from Nauvoo. The exodus from Egypt was from a heathen land, a land of idolaters, to a fertile region desig- nated by the Lord for His chosen people, the land of Canaan. The pilgrim fathers in fleeing to America came from a bigoted and despotic people-a people making few preten- sions to civil or religious liberty. It was from these same people who had fled from old- world persecutions that they might enjoy liberty of conscience in the wilds of America, from their descendants and associates, that other of their descendants, who claimed the
right to differ from them in opinion and practice, were now flecing.
*
*
*
Before this the Mormons had been driven to the outskirts of civilization, where they had built themselves a city ; this they must now abandon, and throw themselves upon the mercy of savages."-Bancroft's History of Utah, page 217.
*7-VOL. 1.
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were left in charge of a committee consisting of Almon W. Babbitt, Joseph L. Heywood and John S. Fullmer.
Two days after Brigham's arrival on Sugar Creek,-during which interim he was busy with his brethren in organizing the camps for traveling,-he called together the Apostles who were with him and held a council. There were present Brigham Young, Heber C. Kimball, Orson Hyde, Orson Pratt, John Taylor, George A. Smith and Willard Richards. The subject considered by these leaders was as follows: It seems that about the time of the beginning of the exodus from Nauvoo, there had sailed from New York on the ship Brooklyn a company of Latter-day Saints bound for the Bay of San Francisco. They numbered two hundred and thirty-five souls, and were in charge of Elder Samuel Brannan. The company were well supplied with farming implements, and all tools necessary for the formation of a new settlement, which they proposed founding some- where on the Californian coast. Elder Brannan believed that that would be the ultimate destination of the main body of his people. These Mormon colonists, who were probably the first American emigrants to land on the coast of California, carried with them a printing press, type, paper and other materials, with which was after- wards published the California Star, the pioneer newspaper of the Golden State. Elder Brannan, in New York, had edited a paper called The Prophet, published in the interests of the Latter-day Saints. He was a man of considerable energy and ability, but of speculative tendencies, and bent more to worldly ends than to spiritual aims.
Prior to sailing for San Francisco-then Yerba Buena-Brannan had entered into a peculiar compact with one A. G. Benson, repre- senting certain politicians and financial sharpers at Washington, who, being aware of the contemplated Mormon exodus, proposed if possible to profit by it. This compact, which Brannan had sent to Nauvoo for the Church leaders to sign and then return to Mr. Benson, required that the Mormons transfer to A. G. Benson and Company, and to their heirs and assigns, the odd numbers of all the
gosmith
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lands and town lots they might acquire in the country where they settled. It was represented that ex-Postmaster Amos Kendall was one of the parties represented by Benson, and that no less a person- age than the President of the United States was a "silent partner" in the scheme. If the Mormon leaders refused to sign the agree- ment, President Polk, it was stated, would forthwith proclaim that it was their intention to take sides with Great Britain or Mexico in the international controversies then pending between those countries and the United States, and send troops to intercept their flight, disarm and disperse them. In case they did sign, they and their people were to be protected and allowed to proceed on their journey unmolested. Such was the substance of Elder Brannan's letter, which, with a copy of this precious agreement, Brigham Young laid before his brethren, the Apostles, at their council on Sugar Creek, February 17th, 1846.
The proposition was treated with the contempt that it merited. Not only was it promptly rejected, but to Messrs. A. G. Benson and Company not even an answer was deigned. "Our trust is in God; we look to Him for protection," said Brigham and his brethren, too much inured to danger and deeds of violence to be frightened or tempted to thus dishonor themselves, even by threats of Federal bayonets.
That President Polk had really lent himself to the furtherance of such a rascally scheme, the general reader will be much inclined to doubt. We would prefer believing that the use of his name in this unsavory connection was without his consent and merely a shrewd trick of the sharpers, parties to the proposed land-grab, to give weight and cogency to their proposition.
A farewell visit to Nauvoo, where parting services were held in the all but completed Temple, and President Young and the Apostles again joined the camps on Sugar Creek. The temporary organiza- tion of the companies was now perfected. They comprised about four hundred wagons, all heavily loaded, with not more than half the number of teams necessary for a rapid journey. Most of the fam-
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ilies were supplied with provisions for several months, but some were quite destitute, or had only sufficient to last for a few days. None, however, were permitted to lack food. The "share and share alike" principle and practice of the Mormon community prevented this. But the weather continuing very cold, some suffering was experienced on that score.
The "Camp of Israel" being organized, and the Governor of Iowa having been petitioned by the Saints for protection while pass- ing through that Territory, President Young, on Sunday, March 1st, gave the order for a general advance. It was not the design, nor the subsequent practice of the Mormons to travel on Sundays. In all their migrations, except when necessity compelled, they were careful to keep the Sabbath day holy. But to get farther away from Nauvoo, which parties from the camps were frequently visiting, thus causing the anti-Mormons to suspect, or at least assert, that the exodus was not genuine, the President, on the opening day of spring, ordered the companies to move forward. Bishop George Miller's wagons had already departed. By noon all tents had been struck and the Camp began to move. In the van went Colonel Stephen Markham, with a hundred pioneers, to prepare the road before the main body. Colonel Hosea Stout with a company of riflemen-mounted police-guarded the wagons, and Colonel John Scott, with another hundred men, accompanied the artillery. William Clayton had been appointed clerk of the Camp, and Willard Richards, a graphic and ready writer, its historian.
Traveling five miles in a north-westerly direction, the Camp halted for the night,-still on Sugar Creek. Scraping away the snow, pitching their tents and corralling their wagons, quite a primi- tive little city soon sprang up, as if by magic, from the frozen earth. Large fires were built to dispel the gathering darkness, thaw out cold-benumbed fingers and features, and cook the evening meal. Despite the dreary situation and forbidding surroundings, a spirit of remarkable cheerfulness reigned throughout the Camp. Everybody seemed happy and determined to "make the best of it." In so
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doing, no people, under such circumstances, ever succeed better than the Mormons. Were it not the Sabbath, the merriest of songs would be sung, the jolliest of jokes cracked, the funniest of stories told, ad infinitum. Captain Pitts' Brass Band would tune their instru- ments, and awaken with soul-stirring, heart-cheering strains the prairie solitudes. At all events such was their custom during that long and dreary journey to the Missouri River and beyond. But at a seasonable hour all merriment would be hushed; heads and hearts bowed in reverent prayer, thanks returned to heaven for mercies already bestowed, and God's blessing invoked upon Israel,-these whose habitation was to be for many months the houseless plain and prairie, and the remnant left behind in the doomed city of Nauvoo.
Thus, from day to day, slowly and wearily traveling, went the exiled Saints across the undulating surface of snow-covered Iowa. The roads were very bad, the weather cold and stormy, and the streams, now frozen, now swollen by spring freshets, almost and at times quite impassable. Again and again they were obliged to double teams on the heavily loaded wagons, to drag them through deep streams and miry marshes on their line of travel. Some days three or four miles would be the extent of their journey. Many a halt was made, at times for weeks. Their able-bodied men often found employment at the nearest settlements, even crossing over the line into Missouri to obtain work, exchanging their labor with their old enemies for needed provisions and supplies.
On the 27th of March, on Shoal Creek, in the Chariton River region, where for three weeks they were delayed by the freshets, the Camp was more thoroughly organized. Companies of "hundreds," "fifties," and "tens" were formed, and captains appointed over them. Each company had its commissary, and there was a Commissary General. Henry G. Sherwood was that officer. David D. Yearsley, W. H. Edwards, Peter Haws, Samuel Gulley and Joseph Warburton were contracting commissaries. There were still others whose duty it was to distribute equitably among the various companies, grain, provisions and other commodities furnished for their use. The
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Apostles, who had hitherto been acting as captains of companies were relieved of those commands and made presidents of divisions. The Camp consisted of two grand divisions, presided over by Brigham Young and Heber C. Kimball; the former as President and General-in-chief, directing the whole.
The laws of the Camp were strict without being oppressive. The President had said, while on Sugar Creek: "We will have no laws we cannot keep, but we will have order in the camp. If any want to live in peace when we have left this place, they must toe the mark." Honesty and morality were strictly enjoined; decency and decorum likewise. Thieving was not tolerated, either by Mor- mons or non-Mormons. In one or two instances where stolen property was found in camp,-some wayside trapper or farmer being the victim,-the thief was compelled to return it in person, and make due reparation. Profanity and irreverence were forbidden. Amusement and recreation, to a proper extent, were encouraged, as tending to divert the minds of the people from their past troubles and lighten their present toils, but excess of mirth and loud laughter were discountenanced.
At various points between the Mississippi and the Missouri the Mormons founded temporary settlements, or, as they called them, " traveling stakes of Zion," fencing the land, building log cabins, and putting in crops for their own use or for the benefit of their people who came after them. Two of these "stakes" were named Garden Grove and Mount Pisgah; the former on the east fork of Grand River, one hundred and forty-five miles from Nauvoo, and the latter near the middle fork of the Grand, twenty-seven miles farther west. Mount Pisgah was on the Pottawatomie Indian lands.
A thousand west-bound wagons of the Saints were now rolling over the prairies of Iowa. Amos Fielding, traveling back to Nauvoo, counted over nine hundred of their vehicles in three days. Many more were preparing to follow. Winter was past; the snow had dis- appeared, the icy streams had melted, the grass was growing, flowers blooming and birds singing. Summer had come, and all nature
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smiled in welcome. The vanguard of the migrating trains, under Brigham Young, reached the Missouri River about the middle of June. They were cordially welcomed by the Pottawatomie and Omaha Indians, upon whose lands the Saints temporarily settled.
Before reaching the Missouri the Mormon leaders had planned to leave the main body of their people there, and at the various settlements founded along the way, and while the remnants in the rear were gathering to those places, to push on that season, with a picked band of pioneers, and explore the Rocky Moun- tains. Apostle Woodruff, who was back from Europe, and had arrived at Mount Pisgah, received word from the President at Council Bluffs * to furnish one hundred mounted men for the expedition. Sixty had volunteered, and the muster was still in progress, when an event occurred to materially change the program, and delay the departure of the pioneers until the following spring. It was the call for the Mormon Battalion.
In April, 1846, war had broken out between the United States and Mexico. The original cause was the annexation of Texas in 1845, but the immediate casus belli was the occupation by United States troops, in March, 1846, of disputed territory on the Texan frontier, an act regarded by Mexico as a virtual declaration of war. She resented it as such, and in April began hostilities. The victories of Palo Alto and Resaca de la Palma, won by General Zachary Taylor on the 8th and 9th of May, drove the Mexicans across the Rio Grande, and here the war, in the opinion of many Americans, should have ended. But the majority of the nation, especially the South- bent upon extending slavery and preserving her balance of power- wished the strife continued, having set their hearts upon more. Nothing now would suffice but the extension of the boundaries of the Union to the Pacific Coast of California. This meant, in plain terms, the wresting from Mexico of her two provinces of New Mexico and
* So called from the fact that the Indian tribes of that region were in the habit of holding their councils there.
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California, lying directly in the path of the Republic in its proposed march to the sea. Great Britain, still claiming Oregon, also coveted California, and it was to checkmate that power in her ambitious designs, as well as to acquire more territory for future states, that the war with Mexico was continued.
President Polk, having announced to Congress that war with Mexico existed by her own act, was authorized to issue a call for fifty thousand volunteers. At the same time ten million dollars were voted for war purposes. The plan was to strike Mexico in three places. General Stephen F. Kearney was to invade New Mexico and Cali- fornia, General Taylor to continue operations along the Rio Grande, and General Winfield Scott, commander-in-chief, to invade Mexico from the Gulf coast, carrying the war into the heart of the enemy's country. So much for the subject in general. The call for the Mormon Battalion was a portion of the plan matured at Washington for the invasion by General Kearney of the northern provinces of Mexico.
Let us now go back a little further. Shortly before the war broke out, and soon after the beginning of the exodus from Nauvoo, Elder Jesse C. Little, at the suggestion of President Young, visited Washington for the purpose of soliciting governmental aid for his people in their exodus. No gift of money or of other means was asked, but it was thought that the national authorities might wish to employ the Saints in freighting provisions and naval stores to Oregon or other points on the Pacific coast. Elder Little, who was in the east when he received his instructions from Nauvoo, carried with him to the capital letters of introduction from Governor Steele, of New Hampshire, and Colonel Thomas L. Kane, of Philadelphia; the former an old acquaintance of Elder Little's, and the latter-Colonel Kane-one of those brave and chivalric souls, too rarely met with in this world, ever ready to espouse, from a pure sense of justice and knightly valor, the cause of the oppressed. Such a class he believed the Mormons to be. Colonel Kane was brother to Dr. Kane, the famous Arctic explorer. Governor Steele's letter was addressed to
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Secretary Bancroft, of the U. S. Navy; that of Colonel Kane to Vice- President George M. Dallas.
Through ex-Postmaster-General Amos Kendall, Elder Little obtained an introduction to President Polk and other distinguished personages, with whom he had several interviews, laying before them the situation and prospects of his people and their application for governmental aid. He was kindly received by the President, who referred to the Saints in favorable terms. He stated that he had no prejudice against them, but believed them to be good citizens and loyal Americans; as such he was "willing to do them all the good in his power, consistently." Elder Little, after his first interview with the President, addressed to him a petition which closed as follows :
From twelve to fifteen thousand Mormons have already left Nauvoo for California, and many others are making ready to go ; some have gone around Cape Horn, and I trust, before this time, have landed at the Bay of San Francisco. We have about forty thousand in the British Isles, all determined to gather to this land, and thousands will sail this Fall. There are also many thousands scattered through the States, besides the great number in and around Nauvoo, who will go to California as soon as possible, but many are destitute of money to pay their passage either by sea or land.
We are true-hearted Americans, true to our native country, true to its laws, true to its glorious institutions ; and we have a desire to go under the outstretched wings of the American Eagle; we would disdain to receive assistance from a foreign power, although it should be proffered, unless our Government shall turn us off in this great crisis, and compel us to be foreigners.
If you will assist us in this crisis, I hereby pledge my honor, as the representative of this people, that the whole body will stand ready at your call, and act as one man in the land to which we are going; and should our territory be invaded, we will hold ourselves ready to enter the field of battle, and then like our patriotic fathers, make the battle-field our grave, or gain our liberty.
Just at this juncture the news reached Washington that the con- flict for some time pending between the United States and Mexico had begun, General Taylor having fought his first two battles with the Mexicans. This news, which set all Washington aflame, determined President Polk upon the project of taking immediate possession of California, and of using the migrating Mormons for that purpose. His plan, as laid before his cabinet, was to send Elder Little direct to the Mormon camps in Iowa, to raise a thousand picked men "to make
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a dash into California and take possession of it in the name of the United States." This battalion was to be officered by its own men, with the exception of the commander, who was to be appointed by the President. They were to be armed and equipped by the govern- ment, and furnished with cannon and everything necessary to defend the country they conquered. A thousand more Mormons from the eastern states were to be sent via Cape Horn in a U. S. transport for the same purpose. The plan was fully matured, and about to be executed, when it was changed through the influence of Senator Thomas Benton, of Missouri. Then came the adoption of the general plan of operations, involving a call for five hundred Mormon volunteers to form a portion of General Kearney's force to invade New Mexico and California.
About the middle of June Elder Little left Washington for the west. He was accompanied by Colonel Thomas L. Kane, who had been commissioned by the President to carry special dispatches to General Kearney, at Fort Leavenworth, relative to the Mormon Battalion.
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