CHAPTER TWENTY-SIX
Pioneers to the West

While the Latter-day Saints in Winter Quarters and in the wilderness of Iowa waited out the winter of 1846–47 and planned for the momentous trek the following spring, three other groups of Saints were already on the move to the West: the Mormon Battalion, members from the eastern United States who sailed on the ship Brooklyn, and a small party known as the Mississippi Saints.

The March of the Mormon Battalion

Captain James Allen of the United States army was promoted to Lieutenant Colonel after enlisting five companies of Mormon men. Under his direction 541 soldiers, 35 women (20 of whom were designated as laundresses), and 42 children began their march to Fort Leavenworth on 21 July 1846. Before they left, the officers, all of whom had been selected by Church leaders, met privately with members of the Twelve. The Brethren promised them that their lives would be spared if they were faithful. Sergeant William Hyde reported that they were charged “to remember their prayers, to see that the name of the Deity was revered, and that virtue and cleanliness were strictly observed. [The troops were instructed] to treat all men with kindness . . . and never take life when it could be avoided.”¹

[click for enlarged version] [Bitmap] [PDF] The route of the Mormon Battalion from Iowa to California. Note that three separate sick detachments were sent to Pueblo, Colorado. They later joined the pioneers on the main trail in Wyoming.

Nevertheless the departure of the Mormon Battalion worried many. Sergeant William Hyde, who left a wife and two small children with aged relatives, said, “When we were to meet with them again, God only knew. Nevertheless, we did not feel to murmur.”² Drusilla Hendricks, whose husband had been wounded in the Battle of Crooked River in Missouri, would not let her oldest son, William, join until the voice of the Spirit convinced her otherwise. On the morning the battalion left, she was still heartsick and could not go with her husband to see her son off. Instead she went to milk the cows and pray for William’s safety. She wrote, “Then the voice . . . answered me saying, It shall be done unto you as it was unto Abraham when he offered Isaac on the altar. I don’t know whether I milked or not for I felt the Lord had spoken to me.”³

The new soldiers marched two hundred miles down the east side of the Missouri River, then crossed over to Fort Leavenworth, arriving on 1 August 1846. There they were outfitted with supplies, guns, and forty-two dollars per man as clothing money for the year. The paymaster at the fort was surprised when every man was able to sign his name on the payroll. Only a third of the volunteers he had previously paid could write. A portion of the money was collected by Parley P. Pratt and others sent by the Church. This was used to support the battalion members’ families in Iowa and in unorganized territory, to assist in evacuating the poor from Nauvoo, and to help Parley P. Pratt, John Taylor, and Orson Hyde on their mission to England.

General Stephen W. Kearny’s regiment had already embarked in June toward Santa Fe to conquer New Mexico for the United States. The Mormon Battalion was to follow him and aid his operations if necessary. For two weeks the battalion remained at Fort Leavenworth. The weather was very hot, and many men suffered, particularly with fevers. Their commanding officer, Colonel Allen, became severely ill and was not able to leave with them when they took up their march. Captain Jefferson Hunt, the ranking Mormon officer, took temporary command of the battalion. About two weeks after leaving the Missouri River, the men learned that Colonel Allen had died. This saddened them because they had grown to admire this benevolent officer.

The Mormon officers felt that Captain Hunt should continue as their leader and requested by letter that President Polk appoint him to the position. But First Lieutenant A. J. Smith of the regular army was already en route to assume command. “The appointment of Smith, even before his character was known, caused a greater gloom throughout the command than the death of Colonel Allen had,” wrote battalion historian, Daniel Tyler.⁴

Lieutenant Smith set a rapid pace for Santa Fe, hoping to overtake General Kearny before the latter left for California. This wore heavily on the soldiers, and more especially on the wives and children who were allowed to travel with the battalion. With the relentless push, the men had little rest, and often the weary fell behind, trudging into camp hours after the others. Worse than the fast travel were the ministrations of the military doctor, George B. Sanderson of Missouri. He seemed to dislike the Mormons and forced the men to swallow calomel and arsenic for their ills from the same rusty spoon. The men referred to him as “mineral quack” and “Doctor Death.” William L. McIntire, a good botanic physician, had been appointed assistant surgeon to the battalion but was unable to administer to his afflicted friends in any way unless ordered to by Dr. Sanderson, the battalion surgeon.

On 16 September at the last crossing of the Arkansas River (in present-day Kansas), Smith sent Captain Nelson Higgins and ten men to convey most of the soldiers’ families up the river to the Mexican village of Pueblo (in present-day Colorado) for the winter. The men strongly protested this “division” of the battalion because they had been promised that their families could accompany the army to California. The decision proved to be wise, however, in light of the difficult trek that lay ahead. A month later at Santa Fe, a detachment of sick men and all but five of the remaining women were sent under the direction of Captain James Brown to join the earlier group at Pueblo. There the battalion members met John Brown and his company of Mississippi Saints who were wintering in Pueblo.

On 9 October 1846 the weary soldiers dragged themselves into Santa Fe, the provincial capital of New Mexico, which had some six thousand inhabitants. General Kearny had already left for California, leaving the city under the command of Colonel Alexander Doniphan, a friend of the Saints from the Missouri days. Doniphan ordered a one hundred gun salute in honor of the arrival of the Mormon Battalion. In Santa Fe, Lieutenant Smith relinquished command to Lieutenant Colonel Philip St. George Cooke, whom the men came to respect as a fair but firm leader. The new commander had orders to blaze a wagon trail from Santa Fe to California. Veering south along the Rio Grande, the soldiers sometimes followed Spanish or Mexican trails but generally cut new roads. Once again the march took its toll in sickness; on 10 November a third detachment of fifty-five worn and weakened men turned back toward Pueblo.⁶

Not only did lack of water and food plague the remaining 350 members of the battalion, but the sandy trails were a constant challenge. The soldiers were either pulling long ropes to help the teams get through the deep sand, or they were walking double file in front of the wagons to make firm trails for the wheels. After they turned northwest toward Tucson they encountered a herd of wild bulls. These were bulls abandoned by Spanish and Mexican ranchers. The bulls stampeded the line of march, sending the soldiers rushing for safety. The “battle” lasted only a few minutes, but ten to fifteen animals were killed, two of the battalion’s mules were gored to death, and three soldiers were wounded. The event was immortalized as the Battle of the Bulls, and was the only fight during the battalion’s long journey.

The battalion passed without incident through Tucson, where a small Mexican garrison was stationed. They then rejoined Kearny’s route along the Gila River. Beyond the Colorado River lay over a hundred miles of trackless desert, where water was obtained only by digging deep wells.⁷ There the battalion encountered the heaviest sands, the hottest days, and the coldest nights. Weakened animals were butchered for food and all parts were eaten, including the hide, which was boiled until it was tender enough to eat. By this time many of the men were nearly barefoot, and some of them wrapped rawhide and old clothing around their feet to protect them from the hot sands. Beyond the desert they transported wagons through the narrow mountain passes of the coastal range with ropes and pulleys. Finally on 29 January 1847 they reached Mission San Diego at the end of their 2,030-mile march and reported to General Kearny. Kearny was named governor of California by President Polk in February.

Since California was already in the hands of the United States, the battalion men served as occupation troops with garrison duty in San Diego, San Luis Rey, and Los Angeles.⁸ While in southern California, the Saints gained the respect of the local citizens. Those in San Diego built a courthouse and houses, burned brick, and dug wells, thus contributing significantly to the building of the community. On 16 July, at the end of their year’s enlistment, the battalion members were discharged, although eighty-one men chose to reenlist for an additional six months.

Most of the discharged men left for northern California, intending to travel east to join the Saints in the Salt Lake Valley. They were met by Captain James Brown, pioneer, founder of Ogden, and counselor in Ogden’s stake presidency for many years. He conveyed a message from Brigham Young asking those without families to stay in California to work during the winter of 1847–48. Most of them did. Many spent the winter at Sutter’s Fort on the Sacramento River and assisted in the discovery of gold in January 1848 that began the California gold rush. The following summer they honorably completed their contracts with Sutter, abandoned the gold fields, and joined their families in Salt Lake City or at the Missouri River.

The Brooklyn Saints

The Mormon Battalion was not the first group of Saints to reach the West. That honor belongs to a company of Saints who sailed out of New York harbor aboard the ship Brooklyn on 4 February 1846, coincidentally the same day the first Saints left Nauvoo. In August 1845 Church leaders had decided that a way station on the California coast would be needed for immigrating Saints from the South Pacific or England who came around the tip of South America. Apparently Brigham Young envisioned the young, energetic Samuel Brannan as a Church agent in the San Francisco bay region. The publisher of the Prophet, the Church newspaper in New York, he was appointed in September 1845 to charter a ship and direct the company.

During the last three months of 1845, Samuel Brannan and Orson Pratt visited various branches in the East and recruited seventy men, sixty-eight women, and one hundred children to sail for the West about the middle of January. They were chiefly farmers and mechanics who carried with them all the tools necessary to build a new colony on the west coast. They also took a large quantity of school books and the printing press on which the Prophet had been printed. In December, Brannan chartered a ship at seventy-five dollars per adult, including provisions, and half fare for children. Known as the Brooklyn Saints, they left for California expecting to help choose and establish the final destination for the Church.

The voyage of the Brooklyn was relatively pleasant except for two severe storms—one encountered in the Atlantic and the other in the Pacific Ocean. Twenty-one specific rules governed the conduct of the Saints during their journey. Reveille was at six o’clock, and the Saints were not permitted to leave their staterooms “without being completely dressed (i e) without their coats, &c.” The rooms were to be cleaned by seven and to be inspected and aired daily. Breakfast was at eight-thirty (children first) and dinner from three to five o’clock, with a “cold lunch” served at eight in the evening. Provisions were made for attending to the sick and for cooking for the group, and Sabbath morning services were held at which “all that are able must attend, shaved, and washed clean, so as to appear in a manner becoming the solemn, and holy occasion.”¹⁰ Rounding Cape Horn, the ship stopped at Juan Fernandez, the island made famous by Daniel Defoe’s Robinson Crusoe. They also spent ten days in the Sandwich Islands (now the Hawaiian Islands). There were two births during the voyage, and the children were named Atlantic and Pacific, after the oceans where they first saw life. Ten of the passengers died on the voyage.¹¹

When the Brooklyn arrived at San Francisco Bay on 31 July 1846, Brannan, who had hoped to be the first American to fly the United States flag in California, was disappointed to see it atop the Mexican customhouse. Some of the company sought work along the coast, but others founded a colony further inland, which they called New Hope. Brannan dreamed that New Hope would become the center for the Saints in the West. By January 1847 he was publishing the California Star, the second English newspaper in California. Most of the Brooklyn Saints were unaware the Church was settling in the Great Basin and willingly followed Brannan’s direction.

In April 1847, Samuel Brannan headed east to meet the body of the Church and offer to guide them to California. He met Brigham Young and the Pioneer Company in June at the Green River (in present-day Wyoming). Thomas S. Williams and Samuel Brannan were sent to guide the members of the battalion and also members of the Mississippi Company into the Salt Lake Valley. These two groups had wintered at Pueblo and were at the time en route toward Salt Lake City. After spending a few days in the Salt Lake Valley with Brigham Young and the Saints, Brannan returned to California with Captain James Brown of the Mormon Battalion to conduct Church business. Disenchanted with Brigham Young’s decision not to establish Church headquarters on the coast, Brannan soon apostatized. Some of the Brooklyn Saints followed him. Brannan publicized the California gold rush and became the region’s first millionaire, but eventually lost his fortune through unwise investments and died a pauper.

The Pueblo Saints

As we have seen,¹² during the winter of 1846–47 about 275 Latter-day Saints formed a substantial community at Pueblo, hundreds of miles west of the main body of the Saints at the Missouri River. This group consisted of the three sick detachments from the Mormon Battalion and approximately sixty “Mississippi Saints” who had come to Pueblo in August.

These southern members of the Church were accompanied by John Brown, who had moved from Mississippi to Nauvoo in 1845. He was appointed by Brigham Young in January 1846 to return to his fellow Saints in the South and urge them to join in the westward migration. Brown and William Crosby led forty-three people 640 miles to Independence, Missouri, where they were joined by fourteen others. They continued west along the Oregon Trail expecting to find the main body of the Saints led by Brigham Young. In July, however, when they reached Chimney Rock in western Nebraska, there were still no Saints. Trappers returning from California told them there were no Mormons ahead of them. Unaware that Brigham Young had decided to establish Winter Quarters on the Missouri, they decided to move to Fort Laramie. There they met John Richard, a trapper who invited them to winter near his trading post at Pueblo. Word finally reached them in Pueblo that Brigham Young had stopped at Winter Quarters.

Life was somewhat settled in Pueblo. In addition to hunting for venison, the Mississippi Saints planted turnips, pumpkins, beans, and melons and worked for fur trappers who paid them with corn. With the incoming battalion men, they built a school which doubled as a church. The battalion kept up regular military drills, and dances were frequent. Seven babies were born during the winter, but there were also nine deaths.

In the spring, Brigham Young wrote to the Pueblo Saints and told them of the plans of the main Pioneer Company to go to the Great Basin in the vicinity of the Great Salt Lake. An advance party from Pueblo went north to Fort Laramie where they met Brigham Young and the pioneers. President Young then dispatched Elder Amasa Lyman and others to guide the rest of the Pueblo Saints to the Salt Lake Valley, where they arrived just five days after the Pioneer Company.

Winter Quarters: A Staging Ground for the Pioneer Company

The winter of 1846–47 saw the Mormon Battalion en route across a trackless desert—the Brooklyn Saints on the sea and then arriving at San Francisco Bay, and the Pueblo Saints waiting out the winter. Meanwhile, Winter Quarters, Nebraska, was bustling with activity in preparation for a Pioneer Company to make the trek west to the Rocky Mountains.

During the fall of 1846 plans were laid for the westward trek. It was decided that a relatively small party should make the initial crossing of the plains to blaze a trail for the larger companies to follow. But even this smaller undertaking required extensive preparation. Wagons were built and outfitted, horses and oxen sturdy enough to withstand the rigorous thousand-mile trip were procured, foodstuffs and other supplies were gathered, and sustenance and protection were arranged for those who remained behind.¹³

Equally important was the need for more information about the largely-uncharted regions of the West. Besides conferring in November and December with local traders and trappers, such as Peter Sarpy, about the trail west of Winter Quarters, council leaders consulted with four men who had recently been in the Rocky Mountain region. Father Pierre Jean DeSmet, a Catholic priest and missionary among the Indians of the Oregon country, arrived in camp en route to St. Louis after five years in the mountains. He was one of the few white men who had visited the Great Salt Lake. Taking advantage of this good fortune, the Brethren questioned him carefully. Five days later two American Fur Company traders gave detailed accounts of the regions west of the Rockies and drew a map of the best areas to settle. Later, Logan Fontenelle, an interpreter for the Omaha Indians, described in detail the westward trail and the best locations for settlement in the mountains.

George Miller, a headstrong leader, argued with Brigham Young over prospective travel and settlement plans. Miller did not agree that the Twelve Apostles held supreme authority in the Church, therefore, he took a small group of Saints to live among the Ponca Indians on the Niobrara River in northern Nebraska. President Young, realizing that dissension in Church leadership was dangerous, sought the will of the Lord on how to deal with Miller and his followers. On 11 January 1847 he related a dream he had the night before where he discussed with Joseph Smith the best method of organizing the companies. Three days later he presented to the Church “the Word and Will of the Lord concerning the Camp of Israel in their journeyings to the West” (D&C 136:1).

Accepted by the assembled priesthood quorums as a revelation to the Church, this document became a constitution governing the westward migration. It said that the trek was “under the direction of the Twelve Apostles” (v. 3) and required the Saints to enter into a “covenant and promise to keep all the commandments and statutes of the Lord our God” (v. 2). It contained much practical direction about preparing for the pioneer journey and caring for the poor, widows, orphans, and Mormon Battalion families. Each man was to “use all his influence and property to remove this people to the place where the Lord shall locate a stake of Zion” (v. 10). The Saints were also to cease contending with each other and were directed to eliminate other vices that were among them.¹⁴

Delegations went to each encampment to read the revelation and to announce the names of men Brigham Young desired to go in the Pioneer Company and in the companies to follow during the first year. Throughout the spring Church leaders held many meetings with various emigrating companies, providing information relative to their tentative location, the construction of boats for fording rivers, methods of pioneer travel, planting seeds, and irrigation.

The original idea was to handpick 144 men for the Pioneer Company—twelve for each of the twelve tribes of Israel—but as it turned out the original group consisted of 143 men (including three slaves of southern members), three women (wives of Brigham Young, Heber C. Kimball, and Lorenzo Dow Young), and two children. Collectively they had a variety of pioneering talents and skills. They included mechanics, teamsters, hunters, frontiersmen, carpenters, sailors, soldiers, accountants, bricklayers, blacksmiths, wagon makers, lumbermen, joiners, dairymen, stockmen, millers, and engineers.¹⁵ Eight of the party were Apostles, and several had been with Zion’s Camp. The company’s equipment included a boat, a cannon, seventy wagons and carriages, ninety-three horses, fifty-two mules, sixty-six oxen, nineteen cows, seventeen dogs, and some chickens.¹⁶

Journey of the Pioneer Company

Some of the vanguard company left Winter Quarters on 5 April 1847, but because of delays caused by general conference and the arrival of Parley P. Pratt and John Taylor from England, little progress was made during the first several days. The arrival of the two Apostles was a blessing because they brought money contributed by the English Saints and scientific instruments for calculating latitude, elevation, temperature, and barometric pressure. Orson Hyde, who had accompanied the two to England, arrived during the middle of May. Since these three were not yet outfitted, they remained in Winter Quarters. Elders Pratt and Taylor traveled with other companies later in the season, and Elder Hyde superintended the Saints who remained at the Missouri River.

Finally on 16 April the camp began its one thousand-mile trek. After two days on the trail, Brigham Young organized the camp in military fashion in case they encountered hostile Indians. William Clayton, the official camp historian, recorded accurate mileage for later emigrants. For the first few days this meticulous record keeper counted the monotonous revolutions of the wagon wheel to calculate the daily mileage. He soon proposed using a mechanical odometer for the job. Scientific-minded Orson Pratt designed the device, and Appleton Harmon, an experienced woodworker, constructed it.¹⁷

[click for enlarged version] [Bitmap] [PDF] The Pioneer Company of 1847 traversed eleven hundred miles from Winter Quarters, near present-day Omaha, Nebraska, to the Salt Lake Valley. Their route followed the broad and gentle Platte River valley for six hundred miles to Fort Laramie in Wyoming, where they arrived on 1 June. They crossed to the south side of the Platte and followed the Oregon Trail for almost four hundred more miles to Fort Bridger. West of Independence Rock in Wyoming, their trail crossed the Continental Divide at South Pass. Somewhere southwest of there the Pioneers met Jim Bridger. On 7 July the pioneers reached Fort Bridger. Continuing south, they picked up the Reed-Donner trail into the Salt Lake Valley. During this final phase of the trek, which was the roughest section of the trip, Brigham Young contracted mountain fever, and the company split into three groups—the vanguard, the main company, and the rear guard with Brigham Young.

Wherever possible the pioneers followed existing roads and trails. They did very little trailblazing between Winter Quarters and the Salt Lake Valley. Across Nebraska the Oregon Trail ran along the south side of the Platte River. The first part of the Mormon Trail paralleled the Oregon Trail to Fort Laramie, Wyoming, but was on the north side of the river because the pioneers hoped to find better grazing and to avoid conflict with immigrants on their way to Oregon. The next section of the trail crossed Wyoming from Fort Laramie to Fort Bridger. Forbidding bluffs on the north side of the Platte forced the Saints to cross over at Fort Laramie and follow the Oregon Trail for 397 miles. At Fort Bridger the Oregon Trail turned north to the Pacific Coast, and the final segment of the Mormon Trail picked up the year-old track of the Reed-Donner party through the Rockies into the Salt Lake Valley.

On 26 May the company passed Chimney Rock—a principal landmark in Wyoming—which was considered the halfway mark by emigrating Saints. It was near Chimney Rock that Brigham Young and Heber C. Kimball expressed concern over the lightmindedness and profanity of some camp members who were holding mock trials and elections, gambling, and playing cards. Late one evening the two senior Apostles, moved by the Spirit, discussed calling the camp to repentance. The next day Brigham Young spoke to the men plainly.

William Clayton recalled Brigham saying, “Give me the man of prayers, give me the man of faith, give me the man of meditation, a sober-minded man, and I would far rather go amongst the savages with six or eight such men than to trust myself with the whole of this camp with the spirit they now possess. . . . Do we suppose that we are going to look out a home for the Saints, a resting place, a place of peace where they can build up the kingdom and bid the nations welcome, with a low, mean, dirty, trifling, covetous, wicked spirit dwelling in our bosoms? It is vain!” He concluded with a call to repentance: “If they [the brethren] will not enter into a covenant to put away their iniquity and turn to the Lord and serve Him and acknowledge and honor His name, I want them to take their wagons and retreat back, for I shall go no farther under such a state of things. If we don’t repent and quit our wickedness we will have more hinderances than we have had, and worse storms to encounter.”¹⁸

The following day, Sunday, Brigham Young convened a special meeting of the leaders. They went out on the bluffs, clothed themselves in their temple robes, and held a prayer circle. William Clayton said they “offered up prayer to God for ourselves, this camp and all pertaining to it, the brethren in the army, our families and all the Saints.”¹⁹ Thereafter a more saintly atmosphere prevailed in the camp.

At Fort Laramie the pioneers halted for repairs, Brigham Young celebrated his forty-sixth birthday, and the camp was joined by some of the Pueblo Saints. At the last crossing of the Platte (in present-day Casper, Wyoming), the pioneers used their boat, the Revenue Cutter, to ferry their goods and belongings across. They built rafts to ferry their wagons. Several Oregon-bound people paid $1.50 per wagon to be ferried across as well. Recognizing an opportunity to earn needed funds, Brigham Young left nine men behind to continue the lucrative ferry. The rest pushed on through South Pass, rafted across the Green River, and arrived at Fort Bridger early in July.

The pioneers encountered a number of mountain men as they traveled west, such as Moses Harris, Jim Bridger, and Miles Goodyear. Harris and Bridger were not optimistic about planting crops in the Salt Lake Valley. Goodyear was the most enthusiastic about agricultural success and encouraged the Saints to settle in Weber Valley, where he lived.

Beyond Fort Bridger travel through the mountain passes became more difficult. By the time they reached the Salt Lake Valley, the company was separated into three groups. Brigham Young, ill from mountain fever, lagged behind the main group. After 13 July, a third division, under the direction of Orson Pratt, moved ahead to chart the route and prepare a wagon road through what became known as Emigration Canyon. On 21 July, Orson Pratt and Erastus Snow caught the first glimpse of the Salt Lake Valley and shouted for joy at the sight. After a twelve-mile circuit into the valley, the two men returned to camp.²⁰

The advance company of pioneers entered the Salt Lake Valley on 22 July 1847 and immediately set up a crude irrigation system to flood the land and prepare for planting. On 24 July, Brigham Young and the rear company arrived at the mouth of Emigration Canyon. Wilford Woodruff drove President Young in his carriage. They looked to the future as they gazed over the valley. Wilford Woodruff wrote, “Thoughts of pleasing meditations ran in rapid succession through our minds while we contemplated that not many years that the House of GOD would stand upon the top of the mountains while the valleys would be converted into orchard, vineyard, gardens and fields by the inhabitants of Zion and the standard be unfurled for the nations to gather there to.” Brigham Young said he was satisfied with the appearance of the valley as a “resting place for the Saints and was amply repaid for his journey.”²¹

On a later occasion, Wilford Woodruff explained that when they came out of the canyon he turned the carriage so that President Young could see the whole valley. “While gazing upon the scene before us, he was enwrapped in vision for several minutes. He had seen the valley before in vision, and upon this occasion he saw the future glory of Zion and of Israel, as they would be, planted in the valleys of these mountains. When the vision had passed, he said, ‘It is enough. This is the right place. Drive on.’”²²

Establishing a Settlement in the Valley

Sunday, 25 July was a day of worship and thanksgiving. Members of the Twelve spoke at morning and afternoon meetings on the importance of industry and upright behavior.²³ For the first few days in the valley, there was some exploring to the north and south to determine the best place to settle. By 28 July, Brigham Young’s decision about the location of a city was firm. Between two forks of City Creek, he designated the lot where the temple would stand. The city would be laid out evenly and perfectly square from that point.

The first weeks were filled with activity. Within a week, a survey of the area had begun and men not engaged in farming were making adobes for a temporary fort, as protection from Indians and wild animals.²⁴ The Mississippi Saints and some of the “battalion boys” who arrived in the valley in October built a bowery for public meetings on the temple block. The first child born in the valley was Elizabeth Steel, who was born to a Mormon Battalion family on 9 August. Two days later the Saints mourned the death of the son of a Mississippi couple, three-year old Milton Threlkill who had wandered from camp and drowned in City Creek.

Exploration of the surrounding country was also undertaken. Brigham Young and the Twelve climbed a mount-like promontory to the north where they prophesied of Zion and which they named Ensign Peak after the prophecy of Isaiah which reads: “He shall set up an ensign for the nations, and shall assemble the outcasts of Israel” (Isaiah 11:12). Expeditions were sent to investigate adjacent valleys. The Saints also discovered the enjoyment of bathing in the Great Salt Lake to the west and in some warm sulphur springs north of the city.

Brigham Young, the Twelve, and most of the original Pioneer Company spent only thirty-three days in the valley in 1847. On 16 August they commenced their return to Winter Quarters to prepare their families to come to the valley the next year. En route they met with 1,553 Saints who were already on their way to the Salt Lake Valley. More familiar with the terrain this time, and with fewer wagons and light loads, men and teams found the traveling considerably faster.²⁵ Their major excitement consisted of losing many valuable horses to the Indians and seeing Brigham Young and Heber C. Kimball chased by a grizzly bear.

Meanwhile the arriving Saints settled in at the “Old Fort,” now the site of Pioneer Park in Salt Lake City, and prepared for winter. Before leaving the valley, Brigham Young designated John Smith, who he knew was in a later company, to preside over the newly created Salt Lake Stake. After he arrived in September, President Smith selected Charles C. Rich and John Young as counselors and organized a high council. This organization, like the high council established in Winter Quarters a year earlier, acted as both spiritual and civic leaders of the community. It was the only government in Utah until January 1849.

Reorganization of the First Presidency

Brigham Young and his company arrived in Winter Quarters just before sunset on 31 October 1847, rejoicing to be with their families again. While en route Brigham Young discussed the possibilities of reorganizing the First Presidency of the Church with members of the Quorum of the Twelve Apostles. Although he emphasized that the Spirit was prompting him, not all of the Brethren were immediately in favor. In the absence of a precedent for such action they were uncertain if it was appropriate to reorganize the First Presidency at that time.

During the three years the Quorum of the Twelve Apostles presided over the Church, a great deal of significant work was accomplished. They completed and dedicated the Nauvoo Temple, administered the temple endowment to a host of faithful Saints, evacuated Nauvoo, expanded missionary work and Church administration in Great Britain, organized the Mormon Battalion, founded several settlements in Iowa, presided over the settling of Winter Quarters, and blazed the way to a new home in the West. Nearly all of these tasks were revealed to Joseph Smith prior to his death, and the Twelve completed them in a wonderful manner. Next was the question of whether the Twelve was to remain the presiding quorum of the Church or whether there should be another First Presidency; and this question needed to be resolved.

After arriving at Winter Quarters, Brigham Young continued to meet and discuss the matter with his colleagues. On 30 November he raised “the subject of appointing three of the Twelve as the Presidency of the Church,” suggesting that such a course would liberate the remainder so they could “go to the nations of the earth to preach the gospel.”²⁶ This was consistent with previous revelations which identified this as the Twelve’s chief calling (see D&C 107:23; 112:1, 16, 19, 28).

While the pioneers journeyed westward in 1847, a more permanent and larger settlement was built in Iowa and named Kanesville in honor of Thomas L. Kane, who had befriended the Saints. The west side of the Missouri River was abandoned for health reasons and because the Saints had promised they would leave Indian land with all improvements after two years. By the time the pioneers returned, most of the Saints had already moved or were moving to Kanesville or other Iowa settlements that Orson Hyde presided over. On 5 December 1847, President Young convened another meeting of the Quorum of the Twelve Apostles in Hyde’s home in Kanesville. He said the subject of the First Presidency had been weighing heavily upon his mind and that the Spirit of the Lord had been stirring him on this matter. He asked the nine members of the Quorum present (Parley P. Pratt and John Taylor were in the Salt Lake Valley, and Lyman Wight was in Texas) to freely express their views on the subject, beginning with the oldest.²⁷

Following the discussion, Orson Hyde moved that Brigham Young be sustained as President of The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints, that he nominate his two counselors, and that they form the new First Presidency. The motion was seconded by Wilford Woodruff and carried unanimously. President Young then nominated Heber C. Kimball and Willard Richards as his counselors. They were also unanimously approved.

Three weeks later the Brethren held a general conference in a commodious log tabernacle that had been rushed to completion in Kanesville. During the joyful sessions of 24–26 December, suspense grew that a new First Presidency was about to be announced. On Monday, 27 December 1847, one thousand members crowded into the tabernacle and heard Brigham Young explain the need for a full organization of the Church, including a First Presidency, the Quorum of the Twelve Apostles, the Seventies, and the Patriarch to the Church. Then Orson Pratt presented Brigham Young as the new President, and the Saints readily sustained him. President Young then presented his counselors who were likewise sustained. Finally “Uncle” John Smith, president of the new Salt Lake Stake, was sustained as the new Patriarch to the Church. Each of these officers was again sustained in the Salt Lake Valley in October 1848.²⁸

As important as the first arrival of Latter-day Saints in the Salt Lake Valley was, no event in 1847 was more significant than the smooth transference of leadership from the Quorum of the Twelve Apostles to a new First Presidency, thus setting the precedent for future transitions up to the present day.

Endnotes

1. In Daniel Tyler, A Concise History of the Mormon Battalion in the Mexican War, 1846–1847, reprinted, 1881 (Glorieta, N. Mex.: Rio Grande Press, 1964), pp. 128–29.

2. In Tyler, A Concise History, p. 128.

3. Marguerite H. Allen, comp., Henry Hendricks Genealogy (Salt Lake City: Hendricks Family Organization, 1963), pp. 26–27.

4. Tyler, A Concise History, p. 144.

5. A. R. Mortensen, ed., “The Command and Staff of the Mormon Battalion in the Mexican War,” in Utah Historical Quarterly, Oct. 1952, p. 343.

6. The previous two paragraphs are derived from James B. Allen and Glen M. Leonard, The Story of the Latter-day Saints (Salt Lake City: Deseret Book Co., 1976), p. 231.

7. Derived from Allen and Leonard, Story of the Latter-day Saints, p. 232.

8. Derived from Allen and Leonard, Story of the Latter-day Saints, p. 232.

9. Henry Bigler’s journal entry; spelling standardized.

10. “Rules and Regulations,” Times and Seasons, 15 Feb. 1846, pp. 1127–28.

11. Previous three paragraphs derived from Allen and Leonard, Story of the Latter-day Saints, p. 238–39.

12. Section derived from Allen and Leonard, Story of the Latter-day Saints, pp. 233–34.

13. Derived from Leonard J. Arrington, Brigham Young: American Moses (New York: Alfred A. Knopf, 1985), p. 130.

14. Derived from Allen and Leonard, Story of the Latter-day Saints, p. 237.

15. See B. H. Roberts, A Comprehensive History of The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints, Century One, 6 vols. (Salt Lake City: The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints, 1930), 3:181.

16. See James Amasa Little, “Biography of Lorenzo Dow Young,” Utah Historical Quarterly, 1946, p. 80.

17. Previous two paragraphs derived from Allen and Leonard, Story of the Latter-day Saints, pp. 242–44.

18. William Clayton, William Clayton’s Journal (Salt Lake City: Deseret News, 1921), pp. 191, 194, 197; spelling standardized.

19. Clayton, William Clayton’s Journal, pp. 202–3.

20. Previous three paragraphs derived from Allen and Leonard, Story of the Latter-day Saints, pp. 244–46.

21. Wilford Woodruff Journals, 24 July 1847, LDS Historical Department, Salt Lake City; spelling and capitalization standardized.

22. In “Pioneers’ Day,” Deseret Evening News, 26 July 1880, p. 2.

23. Derived from Arrington, Brigham Young: American Moses, p. 146.

24. Derived from Arrington, Brigham Young: American Moses, p. 146.

25. Derived from Arrington, Brigham Young: American Moses, p. 147.

26. Wilford Woodruff Journals, 30 Nov. 1847; capitalization standardized.

27. See Wilford Woodruff Journals, 5 Dec. 1847.

28. See History of the Church, 7:623–24.

CHAPTER TWENTY-SEVEN
Establishing a Refuge in Deseret

Only four days after arriving in the Salt Lake Valley, Brigham Young told the pioneers that “he intended to have every hole and corner from the Bay of [San] Francisco to Hudson bay known to us and that our people would be connected with every tribe of Indians throughout America.”¹ President Young named the region Deseret, which is a word from the Book of Mormon meaning honeybee (see Ether 2:3). The prophet intended the new settlements to be a hive of activity. The Saints were virtually the only white settlers in the vast Great Basin, the name for an area about the size of Texas between the Rocky Mountains on the east, the Sierra Nevadas on the west, the Columbia River drainage on the north, and the Colorado River drainage on the south. The area was relatively isolated and arid and short on timber and game. The Saints realized that settling here would require considerable faith and their best efforts, but they believed that with God’s help they could succeed.

First Year in the Salt Lake Valley

In August 1847, Brigham Young, the Apostles, and about one hundred others left the Salt Lake Valley for Winter Quarters, Nebraska. At the same time approximately fifteen hundred Saints in ten companies were on the plains en route to the valley. There was great rejoicing when Church leaders met these companies in present-day western Wyoming. After feasting together, President Young’s company continued their journey east while the other companies continued west, arriving in the Salt Lake Valley during the months of September and October.

Crossing the plains was difficult for these Saints who came as entire families. Many were not able to bear the arduous journey and died on the plains. Jedediah M. Grant, member of the First Council of the Seventy and captain of the third company, lost his wife, Caroline, and their infant daughter, Margaret, who, like many others, contracted cholera on the Sweetwater River. Caroline died four days after her daughter. Before her death, she requested that their bodies be buried in the valley, but Jedediah was forced to inter the baby in a shallow grave and continue on to the Salt Lake Valley where he buried his wife. Then he and his friend Joseph Bates Noble returned to the Wyoming plains to exhume Margaret’s body, only to find that wolves had found the grave first.

But before they reached the grave, the Spirit of God had already comforted him. Elder Grant confided to his friend, “Bates, God has made it plain. The joy of Paradise where my wife and baby are together, seems to be upon me tonight. For some wise purpose they have been released from the earth struggles into which you and I are plunged. They are many, many times happier than we can possibly be here.” Sad that they could not fulfill his promise, they returned to Salt Lake.²

Several years later Jedediah was permitted to see his wife and daughter in the world of spirits. Not long before Elder Grant died, President Heber C. Kimball gave him a blessing. On that occasion Elder Grant related a vision he had received. “He saw the righteous gathered together in the spirit world, and there were no wicked spirits among them. He saw his wife; she was the first person that came to him. He saw many that he knew, but did not have conversation with any except his wife Caroline. She came to him, and he said that she looked beautiful and had their little child, that died on the Plains, in her arms, and said, ‘Mr. Grant, here is little Margaret; you know that the wolves ate her up, but it did not hurt her; here she is all right.’”³

Charles C. Rich and John Young organized a municipal high council in the Salt Lake Valley similar to the one formed a year previously at Winter Quarters. Under the council’s direction, two ten-acre blocks were added to the fort, 450 log cabins were built, an adobe wall around the fort was completed, a fence was constructed around the city to control the livestock, and a number of roads and bridges were built. The “big field,” an area of 5,133 acres, was cultivated, with 872 acres being planted in winter wheat. When Captain James Brown arrived from California with approximately $5,000 in Mormon Battalion pay, the council appointed a group to take some of the money to southern California to buy cows, mules, wheat, and a variety of seeds. The council also approved the use of $1,950 to purchase the Miles Goodyear ranch and trading post on the Weber River thirty-five miles north of Salt Lake, eliminating a possible obstacle in settling that large and promising area.⁴

The Saints were not alone in the valley. A few of the approximately twelve thousand American Indians who inhabited the Great Basin in 1847 lived in the Salt Lake Valley. In the fall a group of Ute Indians came to the fort. One of them offered to sell two young Indians who had been captured in a raid. When the Saints recoiled at the suggestion, the Indian threatened to kill the children. After another refusal, one was killed. Then Charles Decker, Brigham Young’s brother-in-law, purchased the other and gave her to Lucy Decker Young to raise. Sally, as she was named, later became chief cook in the Beehive House and eventually married the Pauvant Ute chief Kanosh.⁵

The first winter in the valley was mild, but there were many discomforts in the Old Fort. Wolves, foxes, and other predators annoyed the people with their incessant howling and depredations. One night Lorenzo Dow Young spread some strychnine around the area and in the morning found fourteen dead white wolves. Swarms of mice were also a nuisance. One contrivance for catching them was a bucket partially filled with water and a board sloping at each end, greased and balanced on the bucket edge, so that the mice would run onto the board to lick the grease, fall in, and drown. One of the most valuable possessions in the fort was a cat.

During March and April heavy spring snow and rain descended upon the valley. Unfortunately, the Saints had not realized this would happen. Their homes had flat sod roofs, which leaked profusely. Food was gathered into the center of the rooms and protected with buffalo skins obtained from the Indians. “It was no uncommon thing to see a woman holding an umbrella over her while attending to her household duties. The Fort presented quite a ludicrous appearance when the weather cleared up. In whatever direction one looked, bedding and clothing of all descriptions were hanging out to dry.”⁶

In the spring of 1848, provisions became scarce. Many of the Saints were without shoes and adequate clothing, so they made moccasins and other clothing out of animal skins. The people were placed on rations. Each person was limited to about one-half pound of flour per day. They also ate crows, thistle tops, bark, roots, and sego lily bulbs.⁷

Priddy Meeks graphically described his attempts to find food while his “family went several months without a satisfying meal of victuals. I went sometimes a mile up Jordan to a patch of wild roses to get the berries to eat which I would eat as rapidly as a hog, stems and all. I shot hawks and crows and they ate well. I would go and search the mire holes and find cattle dead and fleece off what meat I could and eat it. We used wolf meat, which I thought was good. I made some wooden spades to dig seagoes [sego lilies] with, but we could not supply our wants.” He worked particularly hard for thistle roots: “I would take a grubbing-hoe and a sack and start by sunrise in the morning and go, I thought six miles before coming to where the thistle roots grew, and in time to get home I would have a bushel and sometimes more thistle roots. And we would eat them raw. I would dig until I grew weak and faint and sit down and eat a root, and then begin again.”⁸

Because of these difficult conditions, the settlers naturally looked forward to the harvest of new crops, but late spring frosts injured much of the wheat and garden vegetables. Then a May and June drought injured more of the crops. Worse yet, great swarms of crickets descended from the foothills and began devouring what remained. Men, women, and children turned out with sticks, shovels, and brooms to combat the pests. They used fire and even dug trenches to drown the crickets, but these measures failed to stop the onslaught. For about two weeks they battled and prayed for relief. Crop failure meant disaster for the present colony and no food for the more than two thousand Saints planning to immigrate that year.

Finally on a Sabbath day, while Charles C. Rich was preaching, seagulls from the Great Salt Lake flew in and began to devour the insects. “They would eat crickets and throw them up again and fill themselves again and right away throw them up again,” reported Priddy Meeks. The gulls continued their attacks for over two weeks until the crickets were effectively eliminated. Meeks said, “I guess this circumstance changed our feeling considerable for the better.”⁹ Many of the crops were preserved. Today the seagull is Utah’s state bird, and a monument to the seagulls stands on Temple Square.

The Saints nurtured the remaining crops throughout the summer and on 10 August held a harvest feast. Parley P. Pratt described it: “Large sheaves of wheat, rye, barley, oats and other productions were hoisted on poles for public exhibition, and there was prayer and thanksgiving, congratulations, songs, speeches, music, dancing, smiling faces and merry hearts. In short, it was a great day with the people of these valleys, and long to be remembered by those who had suffered and waited anxiously for the results of a first effort to redeem the interior deserts of America, and to make her hitherto unknown solitudes ‘blossom as the rose.’”¹⁰

The settlers also anxiously awaited the return of a number of their fellow Saints, including Brigham Young and other Church leaders, who arrived in September. Before the end of 1848, nearly three thousand Saints, including members of the Mormon Battalion, had arrived in the valley. About one-fourth of the exiles from Nauvoo were now in their new refuge in the West. In Deseret for the second time, Brigham Young enthusiastically wrote to those in Iowa that the Saints had surely found “a haven of rest, a place for our souls, a place where we may dwell in safety.” This was happy news to refugees who had been driven from their homes more than once. He also affirmed that they would “once more rear a temple to his [God’s] names’ honor and glory.”¹¹

The Provisional State of Deseret

During the first year in the valley, the high council made laws, levied taxes, apportioned land, issued water and timber rights, established a cemetery, and imposed fines and punishments for criminal offenses. When the First Presidency arrived in the fall of 1848, civic responsibilities for the growing community passed to a general council of about fifty leading priesthood holders, presided over by the First Presidency, which met weekly at the house of Heber C. Kimball. There was no separation of church and state because the Latter-day Saints considered all affairs of the kingdom of God to be one, whether spiritual, economic, or political.

This provisional government continued to lay out the expanding city. Throughout the fall and winter of 1848, under the direction of Brigham Young and Heber C. Kimball, lots were apportioned to applicants who could adequately care for their property. The city was then divided into nineteen wards, each nine blocks in size. Bishops were placed in charge of each ward, and, under their supervision, fences were built, a network of irrigation ditches was constructed, and trees were planted along the ditch banks.

A plan for distribution of farming lands worked out in the fall of 1848 was consistent with President Young’s philosophy that the land should not be monopolized by the earliest settlers, but should be put to its most productive use for the good of the community. There was to be no private ownership of water and timber—natural resources important to the entire community. Under the direction of bishops, workers turned out to build irrigation systems and roads to the canyons. Families received the right to use water and timber in proportion to the work they put into building and maintaining these systems. Disputes over land and resource use were mediated by priesthood leaders. Even though there was considerable cooperation among the Saints in the use of land, water, and timber, private business enterprises gradually developed to regulate these same resources.

Cooperation also characterized the erection of public works. Daniel H. Wells was placed in charge of this department, which began building a wall around the temple block, a tithing house, the Council House (used for public and political meetings), a small adobe Church office building, a public bathhouse at the warm springs just north of the city, an armory, and a bowery on Temple Square to be used for a central meeting place. A tannery and leather manufacturing establishment, gristmills, sawmills, and a foundry were built with a combination of public and private effort.¹²

The first means of economic exchange in the valley was the thousands of dollars worth of gold dust brought from California by members of the Mormon Battalion who had participated in the discovery of gold near Sacramento. Later the First Presidency sent a few men to California on a “gold mission” for more of the precious metal to help with Deseret’s economy. The gold dust was minted into coins. Paper currency based on the Church’s gold supply was also used.¹³

With the culmination of the Mexican War and the signing of the Treaty of Guadalupe Hidalgo on 2 February 1848, the fledgling colony of the Saints became part of the Union. The treaty granted the United States all of the territory comprising the present states of California, Nevada, Utah, most of New Mexico and Arizona, and parts of Wyoming and Colorado. When Church leaders realized that their colony was part of America, they began planning to become a state. Early in 1849 the general council formally established a provisional State of Deseret with Brigham Young as governor, Willard Richards as secretary of state, Heber C. Kimball as chief justice, Newel K. Whitney and John Taylor as associate justices, and Daniel H. Wells as attorney general.

The provisional State of Deseret was the civil government in the Great Basin for two years. It organized counties, granted rights to natural resources, regulated trade and commerce, established the Nauvoo Legion as an official state militia, and fulfilled all functions of a regular government.¹⁴ The “state legislature” consisted of men selected by Brigham Young and ratified by the voters. This government performed admirably and smoothly until the United States Congress formally established the Territory of Utah in September 1850.

“Here We Will Stay”

Even though the Saints were efficiently governed, there were several challenges in establishing a strong refuge in Deseret. In contrast to the previous winter, the winter of 1848–49 was very severe and created serious needs among the people. It snowed frequently, and the snow remained on the ground throughout the entire winter, making it difficult for the cattle to feed. Heavy snowfall in the mountains made it difficult to gather wood. Excessive cold and violent winds often made life miserable for the settlers.¹⁵

Food was again so scarce that the people ate wolves, hawks, crows, dogs, and animals that had been dead for some time. The council sponsored a contest to eliminate the “wasters and destroyers” that were diminishing what little food supply there was. Numerous predatory animals were killed in this hunt. The brethren also instituted a voluntary rationing and community storehouse system. Those with surplus food were asked to give it to their bishop to be divided among the needy.

The harshness of the winter, constant hunger, a meager harvest the previous year, and the pull of what was called “California fever” created some discontent, and a few settlers loaded their wagons and prepared to leave in the spring. During those trying times, President Heber C. Kimball was moved upon to prophesy, “Never mind, boys, in less than one year there will be plenty of clothes and everything that we shall want sold at less than St. Louis prices.”¹⁶

President Brigham Young also encouraged the Saints: “God has appointed this place for the gathering of His Saints, and you will do better right here than you will by going to the gold mines. . . . We have been kicked out of the frying-pan into the fire, out of the fire into the middle of the floor, and here we are and here we will stay. . . . As the Saints gather here and get strong enough to possess the land, God will temper the climate, and we shall build a city and a temple to the Most High God in this place. We will extend our settlements to the east and west, to the north and to the south, and we will build towns and cities by the hundreds, and thousands of the Saints will gather in from the nations of the earth. . . . We have the finest climate, the best water, and the purest air that can be found on the earth; there is no healthier climate anywhere. As for gold and silver, and the rich minerals of the earth, there is no other country that equals this; but let them alone; let others seek them, and we will cultivate the soil.”¹⁷

Most Saints remained loyal to the cause and planted their seeds. As summer came, the prophets of God were vindicated. The Lord did temper the elements, and there was a bounteous harvest, enough to feed the nearly five thousand Saints who were already in the valley and the fourteen hundred who immigrated during the summer. Moreover, an estimated ten to fifteen thousand gold seekers passing through Salt Lake City in both 1849 and 1850 provided an economic windfall for the Saints. Merchant companies, organized to haul goods to California, learned upon reaching Salt Lake City that food, clothing, implements, and tools sent by ship had already reached the marketplace. They sold their goods to the Saints at devalued prices rather than take an even heavier loss in California. The overland immigrants’ wagons needed servicing and re-outfitting, thus providing employment to Mormon blacksmiths, wagonsmiths, teamsters, laundresses, and millers. The Saints established ferries on the upper crossing of the North Platte, and on the Green and Bear rivers, which were used by the California-bound trains.¹⁸

Parties with empty wagons were sent out from Salt Lake to collect valuable items discarded along the route by those who had attempted to lighten their loads so they could hurry faster to the gold fields of California. John D. Lee spent several days looking for a suitable stove for his family. He finally “found one to his liking, a fine large Premium Range No. 3 which would have cost more than fifty dollars to purchase. On the way back he started loading up with powder and lead, cooking utensils, tobacco, nails, tools, bacon, coffee, sugar, trunks of clothing, axes, and harness.”¹⁹ Thus the famous 1849 gold rush fulfilled the prophecies of Brigham Young and Heber C. Kimball and directly enabled the Saints to survive in the Salt Lake Valley.

Early Exploration and Colonization

Although the major effort of the Saints during their first two years in Deseret was to establish a base of operations, Church leaders also sought other locations for settlement. Exploring parties determined the natural resources of the different areas, including water supply, soil fertility, availability of timber and other building materials, altitude of surrounding mountains, and mineral deposits.²⁰

In July and August of 1847, men from the Pioneer Company were sent to explore southward in the Salt Lake Valley, northward along the Bear River, and eastward into Cache Valley. During the fall of 1847, two routes to California were traversed by Mormon companies. Captain James Brown accompanied Samuel Brannan along the northern trail back to his colony at San Francisco. Jefferson Hunt, senior Latter-day Saint captain of the Mormon Battalion, led a group of eighteen men to southern California to secure cattle and other needed supplies. Hunt was successful in reaching the Chino Rancho by way of the Old Spanish Trail, although members of his party were forced to eat some of their horses to survive.

In December 1847, Parley P. Pratt led an exploring party southward toward the large, fresh-water Utah Lake. They launched a boat, caught fish with a net, and explored the lake and Utah Valley for two days before returning home by way of the Oquirrh mountain range on the west of the Salt Lake Valley. They explored both Cedar and Tooele valleys and the southern end of the Great Salt Lake before finishing their week-long expedition.

Within a year of the pioneers’ arrival, small towns were settled in the southern part of the Salt Lake Valley and also in what became Davis and Weber counties to the north. One of these, Brownsville, named in honor of James Brown, grew into Utah’s second largest city (later called Ogden in honor of Peter Skeen Ogden, a fur trapper). Other colonists joined the Brown family to establish Brownsville, and they successfully raised wheat, corn, cabbage, turnips, potatoes, and watermelons with seed brought from California. They also milked about twenty-five cows and were the first Mormons to produce cheese in the area. This produce helped fellow Saints in the Salt Lake Valley survive the starvation period in 1848–49. In 1849 Brigham Young visited the rapidly growing colony and sent Lorin Farr to take charge of all Church and political affairs there. President Farr became Ogden’s first mayor and the president of the Weber Stake, serving in both capacities for the next twenty years.

The attractive and fertile Utah Valley—named after the Ute Indians who lived there—to the south of Salt Lake Valley was another logical place for settlement. Church leaders first proposed using this valley as a stock range and as a source to supply fish for the Saints in Salt Lake City, but potential Indian problems led them to establish a permanent fortified settlement instead. Thirty-three families, numbering about 150 people, with John S. Higbee as the president of the company, arrived at the Provo River on 1 April 1849. They built Fort Utah about a mile and a half east of Utah Lake and began farming the rich river bottom lands. In September, Brigham Young visited the fort and recommended that the city be moved to higher ground farther east.

This new location became the nucleus of the city of Provo. During the winter of 1849–50, the Utes threatened war against the new settlers, and the Nauvoo Legion was called upon to protect the people of Provo. In a two-day encounter called the Battle at Fort Utah, forty Indians and one settler were killed and several others were wounded.²¹ This confrontation effectively ended Indian resistance in Utah Valley and made it possible for other settlements to be developed in 1850 and 1851,²² including Lehi, Alpine, American Fork, Pleasant Grove, Springville, Spanish Fork, Salem, Santaquin, and Payson. This line of settlements utilized every mountain stream and was spaced so that the outlying farms and pasture lands of each community bordered the next, and all settlers could rally together in case of danger. Provo became the stake center and county seat.

Tooele Valley, west of Salt Lake Valley, was colonized in 1849. In November of that same year, one of the first Ohio converts to the Church, Isaac Morley, led 225 colonists to Sanpete Valley, about a hundred miles south of Salt Lake City. They spent a cold and difficult winter in dugouts on the hill where the Manti Utah Temple was later constructed. The next year Elder Morley and his associates established friendly relations with Ute chief Wakara and his people, who had invited the settlers to locate near them.²³

A fifty-man exploration company, headed by Parley P. Pratt, was formed on 23 November 1849 for the purpose of choosing locations for additional colonies south of the Salt Lake Valley. Four days later they visited the thriving settlement of Provo, which boasted fifty-seven log houses. The company made detailed observations throughout their exploration. They continued south through Juab and Sanpete valleys, arriving at Manti just twelve days after the colonists began that settlement. On 10 December, while on the Sevier River, over two hundred miles south of Salt Lake City, their thermometer registered twenty degrees below zero Fahrenheit. After another hundred miles, part of the company crossed the rim of the Great Basin into what would become known as Utah’s Dixie, and they noticed a marked change in the climate and topography. By New Year’s Day they had reached the present-day site of St. George.

Indian guides and villagers informed them that the country to the south was desolate and forbidding, so they decided to return north. Returning through Mountain Meadows and Pahvant Valley, they were forced to stop at Chalk Creek (now Fillmore) because of heavy snow. It was decided that half of the company would push on to Provo, while the other half would remain at Chalk Creek until spring. This decision was based on the fact that there were only enough supplies to see half of the company through the winter. One morning the brethren of the forward-moving camp were completely buried by the night’s snow. Elder Pratt arose and shouted at his sleeping brethren: “I raised my voice like a trumpet, and commanded them to arise; when all at once there was a shaking among the snow piles, the graves were opened, and all came forth! We called this Resurrection Camp.”²⁴

Gathering to Zion

During this early exploration and settlement, the First Presidency developed plans to gather the remaining Saints, most of whom were quite poor, from the Iowa camps near the Missouri River.

In 1848 the First Presidency left Orson Hyde in Kanesville, Iowa, to direct the fortunes of the Saints. Approximately thirty communities had developed in Pottawattomie County. Agriculture flourished, craftsmen pursued their trades, and schools were held. Elder Hyde established a newspaper, the Frontier Guardian, in 1849 and edited about one hundred issues before being called to Utah in 1852. This newspaper served to keep the Iowa and eastern Saints informed regarding the progress of the kingdom of God.

Kanesville, the largest of the Mormon communities in Iowa, served Church migration as the staging ground for crossing the plains. Close by were three Church-operated ferries on the Missouri River, which were also utilized by one hundred forty thousand emigrants on their way to Oregon and California. One of the happiest events that occurred in Kanesville was the return of Oliver Cowdery in October 1848. On 12 November 1848, Oliver was rebaptized. Unfortunately, before he could gather to the Salt Lake Valley, Oliver became ill and died on a visit to his wife’s family in Richmond, Missouri. He died on 3 March 1850 in the home of his brother-in-law, David Whitmer.

The rich harvest of 1849 and the economic boost of the gold rush pioneers generated confidence for the Church to gather the ten thousand Saints still in the Missouri Valley, the hundreds still in branches scattered throughout the eastern states, and the thirty thousand members of the Church in England. In the fall of 1849 the Brethren launched the Perpetual Emigrating Fund, or the PEF. Its purpose was to solicit contributions in Deseret and use these funds to outfit the poor Saints who had gathered to the camps in Iowa. Then when the immigrants arrived in the valley, they would be expected to labor on the public works or pay back their debt, thus keeping the PEF a “perpetual” fund. PEF assistance to the Saints in Europe began as soon as possible after the removal of the Nauvoo exiles to the West.

Some six thousand dollars was raised that first fall, and Bishop Edward Hunter was appointed as agent to go to Iowa and purchase wagons, livestock, and provisions to outfit numerous Saints to gather to Zion. Approximately twenty-five hundred people immigrated to Deseret in 1850 and another twenty-five hundred were aided in 1851, leaving approximately eight thousand Saints still in Iowa, including those gathered from the eastern branches under the direction of Elder Wilford Woodruff and thousands of British Saints who had come that far.²⁵

Elders Ezra T. Benson and Jedediah M. Grant were appointed in the fall of 1851 to help Orson Hyde in evacuating the camps of the Saints in 1852. To those remaining, the First Presidency implored:

“What are you waiting for? Have you any good excuse for not coming? No! you have all of you, unitedly, a far better chance than we had when we started as Pioneers to find this place: you have better teams and more of them. You have as good food and more of it; you have as much natural strength. . . .

“. . . Therefore we wish you to evacuate Pottawatamie, and the States, and next fall be with us all ye Saints of the Most High.”²⁶

Accordingly, most of the Saints sold their land and improvements in Iowa to other American frontiersmen. Twenty-one companies, averaging over sixty wagons each, migrated to the Great Basin in 1852. Only a skeleton force was left on the Missouri River to aid future emigrants.²⁷

International Expansion

Coincident with their interest in the gathering was the renewed attention given by the First Presidency to the spreading of the gospel of Jesus Christ to the nations of the earth. The responsibility for this vast undertaking resided with the Quorum of the Twelve Apostles. Four vacancies in the Quorum (due to the formation of the First Presidency and the apostasy of Lyman Wight) were filled in February 1849 by the call of Charles C. Rich, Lorenzo Snow, Erastus Snow, and Franklin D. Richards. Many of the Twelve and several elders under their direction were assigned to take the gospel message to the nations of the earth. John Taylor was sent to France and Germany; Lorenzo Snow went to Italy; and Erastus Snow was sent to the Scandinavian countries; each of them was accompanied by several missionaries.

In the general conference of October 1849, Franklin D. Richards was called, along with others, to a mission in England. Elder Richards was to succeed Orson Pratt as mission president. Missionary work in Great Britain had continued with great success following the short mission of Parley P. Pratt, Orson Hyde, and John Taylor in 1846–47. Thereafter, Orson Spencer and then Orson Pratt directed the mission. Thousands of converts entered the Church between 1847 and 1850. Elder Pratt also supervised the emigration of over three thousand people to Kanesville, Iowa, in the first use of the PEF in England.

Elder Franklin D. Richards officially replaced Orson Pratt as mission president in England on 1 January 1851. Under his able leadership for the next seventeen months, thousands more joined the Church, and arrangements continued unabated for the gathering of these Saints to Zion. Both Orson Pratt and Franklin D. Richards published numerous tracts, which helped the missionary effort. The most important publication, however, was a compilation of several revelations and books of scripture translated by the Prophet Joseph Smith, which the English Saints had not previously seen. Elder Richards aptly named this compilation the Pearl of Great Price. This small volume, first published in 1851, became the foundation for the scriptural book by the same name that would be accepted as a standard work of the Church in 1880. Clearly the British Saints contributed greatly to the strength of the Church. Of the thousands who gathered to Zion in the Rocky Mountains in the nineteenth century, over half came from Great Britain.

Other members of the Twelve introduced the gospel to the continent of Europe. John Taylor directed the first missionary activity in France and Germany in 1849 and 1850. The revolutions that racked Europe in 1848 so stirred society there that Elder Taylor and his companions found little success in either nation, but the Book of Mormon was published in both French and German, and a branch of the Church was established in Hamburg, Germany. Sporadic missionary work continued in Germany for several more years.

Elder Lorenzo Snow, assigned to take the gospel to Italy, arrived in the Piedmont region in June 1850 with two companions, Joseph Toronto, a native of Italy, and T.B.H. Stenhouse, a convert from Britain. The missionaries enjoyed some success among a Protestant group known as the Waldenses, but were unsuccessful with the larger Catholic population. Lorenzo Snow arranged for the translation of the Book of Mormon into Italian and sent the first missionaries to Malta and India. In December 1850, Elder Stenhouse introduced the gospel to Switzerland. In February 1851, Elder Snow dedicated this land for the spreading of the gospel. The work there progressed slowly but steadily throughout the 1850s, and Switzerland became the third most productive mission of the Church in Europe after England and Denmark.

The task of taking the gospel to Denmark was given to Elder Erastus Snow of the Twelve. He arrived in 1850 and enjoyed almost immediate success under Denmark’s strong constitutional guarantee of religious freedom. From among the many converts, Elder Snow set apart 150 native missionaries, who in turn helped speed the dissemination of the gospel message. From Denmark the work quickly spread to Norway, Sweden, and Iceland. Although not as many converts joined the Church in these other countries as in Denmark, all of Scandinavia contributed thousands of Saints to the great gathering to Zion during the next fifty years.

During this time of renewed international missionary zeal, many courageous attempts were made to take the gospel to other nations of the earth. These were usually only marginally successful. Parley P. Pratt was assigned the responsibility of heading the Pacific Mission and sent missionaries to China, Hawaii, Australia, and New Zealand. In 1851 he went to Chile but a revolution paralyzed his efforts. The T’ai-ping Rebellion in China thwarted Hosea Stout’s work there. Labors in Australia and New Zealand bore some fruit, and a few immigrants came to Salt Lake City in the 1850s.

The greatest success in the Pacific was in the Hawaiian Mission, which was opened in 1850. George Q. Cannon felt impressed to take the gospel to the native islanders instead of only to the Europeans and Americans. Learning Hawaiian, Elder Cannon and the brethren who followed him found thousands of people ready to accept the gospel.

In the first years following the 1847 founding of a refuge in the West, The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints, under inspired leadership, achieved a remarkable work. It began to conquer a desert, establish a core of settlements, gather thousands of refugees to Deseret, and courageously take the gospel to many nations of the earth.

Endnotes

1. In Wilford Woodruff Journals, 28 July 1847, LDS Historical Department, Salt Lake City; spelling standardized.

2. In Carter E. Grant, “Robbed by Wolves: A True Story,” Relief Society Magazine, July 1928, pp. 363–64.

3. Heber C. Kimball, in Journal of Discourses, 4:136.

4. See B. H. Roberts, A Comprehensive History of The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints, Century One, 6 vols. (Salt Lake City: The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints, 1930), 3:476–77; this paragraph is derived from Leonard J. Arrington, Great Basin Kingdom: An Economic History of the Latter-day Saints, 1830–1900 (Cambridge: Harvard University Press, 1958), pp. 47–48.

5. See John R. Young, Memoirs of John R. Young, Utah Pioneer, 1847 (Salt Lake City: Deseret News, 1920), p. 62; Solomon F. Kimball, “Our Pioneer Boys,” Improvement Era, Aug. 1908, pp. 734–35; derived from Leonard J. Arrington, Brigham Young: American Moses (New York: Alfred A. Knopf, 1985), p. 210.

6. M. Isabella Horne, “Pioneer Reminiscences,” Young Woman’s Journal, July 1902, p. 294.

7. Derived from Arrington, Great Basin Kingdom, p. 49.

8. Priddy Meeks, “Journal of Priddy Meeks,” in Utah Historical Quarterly, 1942, p. 163.

9. “Journal of Priddy Meeks,” p. 164; see also William Hartley, “Mormons, Crickets, and Gulls: A New Look at an Old Story,” Utah Historical Quarterly, Summer 1970, pp. 224–39.

10. Parley P. Pratt, ed., Autobiography of Parley P. Pratt, Classics in Mormon Literature series (Salt Lake City: Deseret Book Co., 1985), p. 335.

11. In James R. Clark, comp., Messages of the First Presidency of The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints, 6 vols. (Salt Lake City: Bookcraft, 1965–75), 1:341.

12. Previous three paragraphs derived from Arrington, Great Basin Kingdom, pp. 51–54.

13. See Eugene Edward Campbell, “The Mormon Gold Mining Mission of 1849,” Brigham Young University Studies, Autumn 1959–Winter 1960, pp. 23–24; Arrington, Great Basin Kingdom, pp. 71–74.

14. Derived from James B. Allen and Glen M. Leonard, The Story of the Latter-day Saints (Salt Lake City: Deseret Book Co., 1976), p. 253.

15. See Brigham Young, Heber C. Kimball, and Willard Richards, in Clark, Messages of the First Presidency, 1:352.

16. In Journal of Discourses, 10:247; previous two paragraphs derived from Arrington, Great Basin Kingdom, pp. 58–59.

17. In James S. Brown, Giant of the Lord: Life of a Pioneer (Salt Lake City: Bookcraft, 1960), pp. 132–33.

18. Derived from Arrington, Great Basin Kingdom, pp. 68–69; Allen and Leonard, Story of the Latter-day Saints, p. 252.

19. Juanita Brooks, John Doyle Lee: Zealot-Pioneer Builder-Scapegoat, new ed. (Glendale, Ca.: Arthur H. Clark Co., 1972), pp. 48–49.

20. Derived from Eugene E. Campbell, “The Mormon Migrations to Utah,” in Richard D. Poll, et al., eds., Utah’s History, 2d ed. (Logan, Utah: Utah State University Press, 1989), pp. 127–28.

21. See Peter Gottfredson, Indian Depredations in Utah, 2d ed. (Salt Lake City: Merlin G. Christensen, 1969), pp. 28–35.

22. Derived from Allen and Leonard, Story of the Latter-day Saints, p. 254.

23. Previous four paragraphs derived from Eugene E. Campbell, “Early Colonization Patterns,” in Poll, Utah’s History, pp. 137–40.

24. Pratt, Autobiography of Parley P. Pratt, p. 340; previous two paragraphs derived from Campbell, “Mormon Migrations to Utah,” p. 129.

25. See Arrington, Great Basin Kingdom, p. 79.

26. In Clark, Messages of the First Presidency, 2:75–76.

27. Derived from Arrington, Great Basin Kingdom, p. 79.

CHAPTER TWENTY-EIGHT
Utah in Isolation

When the Saints first arrived in the Salt Lake Valley, they were satisfied that they were isolated from their enemies and could build the kingdom of God in peace and safety. Brigham Young declared to members of the Pioneer Company on 24 July 1847, “If the people of the United States will let us alone for ten years, we will ask no odds of them.”¹ With the sustaining help of the Lord and by their own industry, the Saints established a strong refuge within the ten years. Success, however, did not come easily. Conflicts developed with government appointees, and great sacrifice was required to gather Church members to Zion and to colonize.

Organization of Utah Territory

Church leaders laid plans in 1848 to negotiate with the United States government for either statehood or territorial status. In March of 1849 an election was held to ratify officers for the proposed territory, and by early May a twenty-two-foot long petition containing 2,270 signatures was on its way to Washington, D.C., proposing the creation of an immense territory including all of what is now Utah and Nevada, portions of Arizona, New Mexico, Colorado, Wyoming, and Oregon, and a third of California, including a narrow strip on the Pacific coast taking in the port city of San Diego.

John M. Bernhisel, a medical doctor with political acumen, was chosen to take Deseret’s petition to the nation’s capital. En route to Washington from Deseret he met with several key politicians in the East and succeeded in soliciting considerable support for his project. In November 1849, Dr. Bernhisel met in Philadelphia with Wilford Woodruff and Colonel Thomas L. Kane, a close friend of the Church. A year earlier at the request of Brigham Young, Kane had been in Washington and had spoken with President James K. Polk and other leading officials about a territorial government for Deseret. He had found little sympathy for the Mormons in Washington and therefore recommended that Deseret apply for statehood. Under territorial status officials would be appointed by the president.

Kane told Wilford Woodruff, “You are better off without any Government from the hands of Congress than a Territorial Government. The political intrigues of government officers will be against you. You can govern yourselves better than they can govern you. . . . You do not want corrupt political men from Washington strutting around you with military epaulets and dress who will speculate out of you all they can.” Kane also recommended that Brigham Young be the governor because “His head is not filled with law books and lawyers tactics but he has power to see through men and things.”²

By the time Bernhisel met with Kane, Church officials in Salt Lake City had also concluded that they should direct their lobbying efforts toward becoming a state rather than a territory. They drew up a formal constitution for the State of Deseret, complete with the necessary elected officials, including First Presidency members Brigham Young as governor, Heber C. Kimball as lieutenant governor, and Willard Richards as secretary of state. Almon W. Babbitt was selected as a delegate to Congress, and he left in July with a draft of the constitution. Babbitt printed the document in Kanesville, Iowa, and then in December met Dr. Bernhisel in Washington.

Unfortunately, Deseret’s application for statehood was not given serious consideration. As Colonel Kane and Dr. Bernhisel quickly perceived, Washington officials were preoccupied with the conflict between the northern and southern states over the extension of slavery into the territory obtained in the war with Mexico. From December 1849 through September 1850 Congress vehemently debated slavery-related issues and showed little concern for the Mormon colony in the Great Basin.

The Church’s best friend in Congress proved to be Senator Stephen A. Douglas of Illinois, who had befriended Joseph Smith and the Saints during the Nauvoo period. Douglas, the chairman of the Senate committee on territories, graciously met with Dr. Bernhisel and promised to help take the petition through the legislative process. Although Congress willingly agreed to rapidly growing California’s petition for statehood, the slavery controversy prohibited serious consideration of the statehood petitions for sparsely populated Deseret and New Mexico. Senator Douglas decided to call for territorial status instead, to appease the South, which could not accept more senators from “free” states. He also changed Deseret’s name to Utah (after the Ute Indians) to avoid offending his colleagues, particularly Senator Thomas Benton of Missouri, who thought Deseret sounded too much like desert.³

After lengthy debate, Congress completed a legislative package known as the Compromise of 1850, which, among other things, admitted California into the Union as a free state and designated Utah and New Mexico as territories with the right to decide by popular sovereignty whether they would eventually become slave or free states. On 9 September 1850 President Millard Fillmore signed the bill creating the Utah Territory. Neither the Latter-day Saints nor the federal officials knew then that this action would begin forty-six years of mistrust and conflict before statehood was finally granted.⁴

Bernhisel’s skill as a lobbyist became particularly important as President Fillmore considered appointment of officers for the new territory. Meeting with the president, Bernhisel stated, “The people of Utah cannot but consider it their right, as American citizens to be governed by men of their own choice, entitled to their confidence, and united with them in opinion and feeling.”⁵ Fillmore, fearing that the Senate would not approve an all-Mormon slate, compromised and selected four Mormons (Young, Snow, Blair, and Heywood) and four others to the federally appointed slots. The appointees for the new territory of Utah were Brigham Young, governor and superintendent of Indian affairs; Broughton D. Harris of Vermont, secretary; Joseph Buffington of Pennsylvania, chief justice; Zerubbabel Snow of Ohio and Perry E. Brocchus of Alabama, associate justices; Seth M. Blair of Utah, U.S. attorney; Joseph L. Heywood of Utah, U.S. marshal; and Henry R. Day, Indian agent.

Conflict with the Non-Mormons

Throughout the fall and winter of 1850–51, fragments of information about the federal government’s action reached the Salt Lake Valley. Upon learning that he was appointed governor and assigned to take a census and establish legislative districts, Brigham Young got to work immediately after taking the oath of office on 3 February 1851. An election for other officials was held in August, the most important official elected being John M. Bernhisel, as territorial delegate to Congress.

The non-Mormon appointees arrived during the following summer. The first to come was Chief Justice Lemuel D. Brandebury, who had replaced Joseph Buffington after he had refused his appointment. The Saints charitably greeted Brandebury and entertained him with a banquet and several dances. Each of the other officials was accorded similar treatment. The last to come was Associate Judge Perry E. Brocchus, who told his traveling companion, Orson Hyde, that he would like to be considered for the position of congressional delegate from Utah Territory. When he arrived on 17 August, he was disappointed to learn of Bernhisel’s election.

Conflict between the Saints and the “Gentile” officials began almost immediately. The territorial secretary, Broughton Harris, accused Brigham Young of irregularities in handling the census and election, which technically could not be certified without the secretary. Mrs. Harris condescendingly referred to the Mormon men and their plural wives as hardly better than animals. Because of his alienation, Harris refused to turn over to Governor Young the territorial seal and the twenty-four thousand dollars appropriated for running the government.

In September, Judge Perry Brocchus asked Brigham Young for permission to speak in the Church’s general conference. After expressing gratitude for the kindness and hospitality of the Saints, he launched into a diatribe against the Mormons for their lack of patriotism and the immorality of their women (because of plural marriage). The audience was infuriated with Brocchus’s speech. President Young took the stand and rebuked Brocchus for his imprudent remarks. The two men later exchanged letters, which, instead of achieving accord, revealed an irreconcilable difference. From the non-member point of view, the Mormons were guilty of sedition for speaking harshly against the United States and its officials, they were a peculiar and immoral people because of their unusual marriage practices, and they were under the “un-American” political domination of their church leaders. The Latter-day Saints, on the other hand, felt justified in criticizing the United States for not redressing their grievances against Missouri and not bringing the murderers of Joseph and Hyrum Smith to justice. Furthermore, they pointed out that despite these injustices, they were loyal to the Constitution.

Brocchus, Harris, Brandebury, and Day left Utah on 28 September 1851. These “runaway officials” as the Saints called them, went to Washington, D.C., with highly colored stories about the Mormons, including the practice of plural marriage. They claimed they had been compelled to leave Utah because of the lawless acts and seditious tendencies of Brigham Young and the majority of the residents. Anticipating these charges, Governor Young wrote to President Fillmore setting forth his own view of affairs in the territory. He also sent Jedediah M. Grant to join John M. Bernhisel and Thomas L. Kane in Washington to represent the Church’s interest. After reading Governor Young’s letter and conducting a preliminary investigation, U.S. Secretary of State Daniel Webster ordered the “runaway officials” to return to their posts or to resign; they resigned.⁶

Back in Utah territorial business proceeded unhindered, and the laws previously enacted by the provisional State of Deseret were officially incorporated into territorial law. In honor of the president of the United States, the legislature created Millard County, christened its county seat Fillmore, and designated it as the future territorial capital. The most important legislative act, passed on 4 February 1852, gave original jurisdiction in both civil and criminal cases to local probate courts, which were presided over by Church officials. This, in effect, made it possible in most instances for these local courts to displace the federal courts, which were presided over by judges appointed by the president of the United States. This situation prevailed in Utah until Congress repealed the territorial statute in 1874. Meanwhile President Fillmore appointed officials who, because they did not criticize the Saints, were more to the citizens’ liking.⁷

In the fall of 1853, a tragedy brought sorrow to both Saints and Gentiles alike. Captain John W. Gunnison led a party of army topographical engineers to survey in the Utah Territory for the proposed transcontinental railroad. In October, a band of vengeful Indians, angered because members of a California emigrant train had killed one of their tribe and wounded two others, attacked Gunnison’s party, killing the commander and seven others. “The tragedy cast a gloom over all the ‘Mormon’ settlements” because Gunnison “was respected by all the people for his kindness and friendly feeling.” Even though Church members had no part in the killing, the image of the Church suffered from rumors that the Mormons had planned and ordered the awful deed.⁸

In 1854 at the conclusion of Brigham Young’s term of four years as governor, President Franklin Pierce refused the entreaties of the Utah citizens to reappoint him. Instead, he selected Colonel E. J. Steptoe as governor. Steptoe was in Utah on assignment to study the feasibility of a military road through the territory and to assist in capturing the murderers of the Gunnison party. Instead of accepting the governorship, Steptoe signed a petition that Brigham Young be reappointed; he then left for California. Pierce offered the position to others, but when they also declined he reappointed Brigham Young as governor.⁹

Gathering to Zion Accelerated

In spite of the seemingly all-consuming task of building a model city in their new Zion, Church leaders took on additional challenges. F