[ 614 ]
THROUGH UTAH.
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VIII.
AFTER two days the storm abated, and on the third morning the sun rose brightly over the mountains, now covered nearly to their base with a pure quilt of snow. Winter seemed to have fixed his permanent abode among them, while summer was permitted to return for a short visit to the valleys. It was summer, with all its agreeable warmth, but not too hot for
travel; summer, lacking somewhat of the pleasant views of green meadows,
ripening harvests, and fruitful trees, but compensating for these losses by
enhanced beauty of mountain scenery around and above.
The Bishop had secured two ponies of promising character, but with peculiarities subsequently developed. As we were provided with our own outfit of saddle and side-saddle, we had nothing more to ask for, but cheerfully agreeing to pay half a dollar per day for each of the animals, for the time they might be required, we packed our luggage, and, mounting them, bade the Bishop and his family good-by for the present. Then, over a ground made somewhat soft by the late rains, we took our course to the south, along the eastern shores of Utah lake.
There is such a similarity in all the settlements that I need scarcely more than mention the names. On the first afternoon we passed through Springville and Spanish Fork, and arrived at Payson, eighteen miles from Provo, in the evening. Our road lay along the bench below the Wasatch mountains. By turning our faces to the left we could enjoy a continual view of winter magnificence, and then looking down upon the bottoms, enough of summer was still there to make a pleasing picture, while beyond them the dark blue waters of the lake contrasted beautifully with the snowy Oquirrh range in the west.
As we rode up to the door of the neat little inn, we were agreeably surprised to meet Judge Emerson, who, with a party, was on his return from the Tintec mines to Provo. This gentleman, although a Federal officer, occupying in this district a position similar to that held by Judge McKean in Salt Lake, is highly respected and esteemed by Mormons and Gentiles alike. Possessing all the accomplishments that distinguish the chief justice, with an integrity equally unquestioned, he lacks his sternness of utterance, and his less pronounced religious bias is regarded as more favorable to the exercise of his judicial action.
The Mormons accept his decisions as made in accordance with the spirit of
the law he is placed here to enforce. No one of them, excepting the most
bigoted, can complain of him for being the agent of the Government, and
no Gentiles, excepting the mischief makers of the "ring," assert that he is too lenient to the Saints.
His present journey is an instance of his ablility to hold their mutual confidence. There had been a dispute concerning a mine between a Gentile and a Mormon. Each of them, desirous of avoiding legal expenses, had agreed that the judge should go with them to the spot, and there decide the question. This had been done, and all parties were returning amicably together. The arrangement was especially agreeable to us, as it afforded us an evening of pleasant entertainment.
In the course of conversation a Mormon gentleman observed that, although
he was a pluralist, and was very happy in his domestic relations, he recognized the right of Government to enforce its law against polygamy, provided it was constitutional. He and many other reflecting men are prefectly willing that some test cases shall be brought into the courts and decided
1875.] THROUGH UTAH. 615
adversely, in order that the vexed question may speedily reach the highest tribunal and be forever set at rest.
The little hotel at Payson is a model of comfort. It had lately been established by a young couple, the husband a Gentile and the wife a Mormon. The linen and the table service were faultless. There was no abominable stove to burn out the oxygen and poison the atmosphere, but a soft coal fire was flaming cheerfully in the grate, and everything reminded us of the easy luxury of an English country inn.
We asked our pretty landlady how she came to marry a Gentile. "Why, isn't he handsome?" she replied; "and then he is good, and then -- and then -- I wanted every bit of him to myself! Father didn't like it, mother didn't like it, but I did."
We had known of similar vagaries among other young women, and as fathers and mothers become reconciled to them after a while, we sincerely hope that the obdurate hearts of these Mormon parents will relent.
Payson contains about 2,000 inhabitants. It is a thriving farming town, and is likely to increase in wealth and population when the railroad reaches it.
In the morning we went on our way south, leaving the shores of the lake, which here has its southwestern limit. We had passed out of Salt Lake valley before reaching Provo, and now on reaching Santaquin came to the southern end of Utah valley. At this small settlement the railroad to be completed from Provo in a few months will have its terminus for the present. Every mile this thoroughfare progresses is a gain to the mining and agricultural interests of the South. These Utah rail-roads are dependent upon no land grants, concessions, or subsidies of any kind. In. the exact proportion of the demand and necessity for them, they are constructed by. the people and for the people who need them. Bonds are issued for two-thirds of the cost. Their bonds are not dependent upon Government charity or the chances of Congressional action. There is no watering of stock. In short, they are built by honest men for honest purposes. I do not know of a single eastern railroad offering such safe and ample security for investment.
Our road had been one of gradual though almost imperceptible ascent for ten miles, to Santaquin. Here we reached, by a somewhat sharper grade, the more elevated valley of Juab, three or four miles wide and thirty miles long; Nephi, sixteen miles south of Santaquin, being its shire town.
Progressing ten miles in that direction, we came to the small settlement of Willow Creek. We were provided with an encyclical letter from a church dignitary in Salt Lake, addressed "to all the bishops South." It was intimated therein that we were in search of information, and we were accordingly commended to the courtesy of these country ecclesiastics, who were requested to furnish mental and bodily refreshments when the lack of hotels obliged us to claim their hospitalities. We always find them assiduous in contributing to our comfort, and ready to impart all the information required. Many of them are in very moderate circumstances, but all have enough and to spare. A Mormon brother is always welcome to board and lodging gratis, and even a Gentile often finds it difficult to make them accept any remuneration.
At Willow Creek we accordingly called upon Bishop Kay for the requirements of ourselves and our animals. Again we found an early pioneer, and listened to the oft-repeated story of crossing the desert.
Salt Lake City is 4,800 feet above the level of the sea. We had mounted 700 feet in a distance of ninety miles. Here, directly against and almost above the village, is Mt. Nebo, the highest peak in the Territory, measured to be 12,000 feet. It was incomparably magnificent, clothed in its pure white robe shaded into a delicate pink at its summit, 7,000 feet above us, as the afternoon sun streamed upon it his upward slanting rays.
616 THROUGH UTAH. [NOVEMBER,
The wonderful rarefaction of the atmosphere plays curious freaks with our estimation of distance. I said to the Bishop that I should like to spend the afternoon, if time allowed, in going up to the peak. "Well," he replied, "you might start this afternoon, and if you did not freeze in the night you might possibly get there by sunset tomorrow. You remind me of an Englishman travelling through this back country a few years ago. He thought everything looked so near that he hadn't far to go, and he never could understand why he could not get along faster. At last he got on a little ahead of the party. They came up to him on the bank of a small brook two feet wide. He was taking off his boots to wade over. 'Why donÕt you jump across?' somebody asked him. 'Aw, you see,' replied the Englishman, 'I've been deceived so often that I fancied this brook might be half a mile wide, and I might be obliged to swim!"
After dinner we rode on to Nephi, over a level bench of sage brush for most of the way. But when we came abreast of the mouth of the Salt Creek canyon, abundant water affording the means of irrigation, the ground bore evidence of the recent plentiful harvests of wheat, oats, and barley, and on entering the town we passed through blocks of orchards rather than of houses.
I have described Nephi in the mention of Payson and of Provo. There is a sameness of beauty in them all. It contains about 2,000 inhabitants, and two hotels, one of which we know to be well kept by Mr. Seeley. He is an old Calfornian, and it was refreshing to find a pioneer who came from the West instead of from the East. "Are you a Mormon or a Gentile?" I asked. "Nary one," replied Seeley; "I'm a neutral." He had been to California in search of gold, he said, and had not found it. So he had come here in search of peace and quiet. Surely he has attained it.
California and Utah solve the problem of longevity. The gold hunters went to California in 1847. In the same year the religious enthusiasts came to Utah in smaller numbers. At San Francisco the veterans of '47 have the annual meetings of their society. Very few of them are now left; of these too many are. broken down old men. Auri sacra fames produces an equal appetite for whiskey, and together they craze the brain. In no country is suicide so common, or old age so rarely attained, notwithstanding its unrivalled climate, as in California. In Utah, where winter howls among the mountains for half the year, and the toil of the farmers in the valleys is incessant, the robust exercise of the woodman and the quiet existence of the agriculturist, their temperate habits and the training of their minds with continual regard to the practice of religion in this world, with reference to its hopes for the future -- these conditions bring but little wear and tear on the human frame. As we have abundant proofs from the gray crowns upon so many heads, men live out their three-score years and ten, and if by reason of strength they be fourscore years, could the Psalmist see them, he would admit that their strength is not always labor and sorrow.
IX.
I HAVE already commented upon the advantage that this southern country will derive from the continuation of the railroad to Santaquin. Twenty miles more over a nearly level grade would bring it to Nephi. It is a necessity that the work should be thus far accomplished. * The less settled country, extending about two hundred miles to St. George, the southern town of Utah, can afford to wait for its development.
It is true that Pioche, far in the southwest, on the confines of Nevada, is exceedingly rich in silver mines, and that the mines would be vastly more productive if railroad facilities were
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* This has since been completed.
1875.] THROUGH UTAH. 617
afforded, but this district may be reached by the railroad now in course of construction in Tooole county. The iron country, some hundred and fifty miles south of Nephi, would be greatly stimulated by the advent of a railroad. But it is questionable if there would be sufficient; freight from both these sources to make the railroad a profitable investment for many years to come. The policy of building railroads to develop business is not so safe or successful as that of prosecuting business until it offers a sufficient inducement to make railroads remunerative.
Thus far the latter plan has been followed with the best results in Utah. With scarcely an exception, all the roads have paid good dividends from the first year of their being put into operation. Nephi is an excellent point for the termination of the Utah Southern.
The extensive Tintec silver mines can be reached by an easy grade for a narrow gauge road of twenty miles in a westerly direction, while it is also the nearest and most convenient junction for the narrow gauge road contemplated and surely to be built for the San Pete valley, that will contribute its coal and its grain. This is reached by the Salt Creek canyon, through which we took our road.
The ascent is very gradual, little of it being on its steepest grade of 200 feet to the mile. The caiÕion is so wide that the height of the mountains at its sides is not fully realized, and there were always perplexing ideas of distances. By a circuitous track we wound along, keeping a southeast course in view, but often steering due north. In this way we circled Mt. Nebo, until we had a full veiw of its eastern slope, as beautiful in the morning light; as its western side had appeared in the sunshine of the previous afternoon. With the exception of a saw-mill and one cattle ranch, there was no sign of habitation or life upon the road until we came to Fountain Green, the first village in San Pete valley, into which we descended from the divide, after making fifteen miles from Nephi. Bishop Johnson not being at home, Mrs. John son gave us a kindly welcome, and spread before us an abundant and cleanly meal. There had recently been a marriage in the family, and we were introduced to the bride and bridegroom, the former fifteen and the latter seventeen years of age.
Polygamy is not much countenanced in San Pete, as would appear by the energetic conduct of our hostess not long ago. I have related the experience of the Bishop of Camp Floyd, when he pursued matrimony under difficulties. His brother of Fountain Green fared even worse. He also conjugated surreptitiously. When Mrs. Johnson discovered that he had another house she dressed herself in male apparel, and, armed with an axe, destroyed the honeymoon. Fortunately mistaking the bedpost for one of their heads, she hacked it into a broken shaft over the grave, as it were, of love nipped in its early bud.
This valley was originally called by its Indian name of San Pitch, a chief of this region. San Pitch headed the war which devastated these settlements seven years ago. As in the unpleasantness that occurred at Eden, Troy, and thousands of other places, a woman was the cause of this trouble.
Barney Ward, an old settler before the time of the Mormon occupation of the valley, was on such terms of friendship with San Pitch that he promised him his daughter in marriage when she should become of a suitable age. But when that time arrived the young woman was found to have a will of her own. She rejected the advances of the swarthy Ute, and he took vengeance on the whites for the jilting he had received. The innocent Mormons who had begun to settle in the valley were murdered or driven out, their habitations laid waste, their crops burned, and their cattle stolen. All this happened because of the obstinacy of Miss Ward.
At the close of the war the Mormons
618 THROUGH UTAH. [NOVEMBER,
returned, and again built up their homes, fortifying all their villages with rude forts for their defence in case of other outbreaks. The wisdom of their precautions has been made obvious, for two raids have since been made upon them, the last of which occurred only two years since, when several individuals were killed and a large number of cattle driven off. Already nine towns, including this of Fountain Green, containing altogether ten thousand people, have been rebuilt, and are in a flourishing condition.
The valley is forty miles in length by four to live in breadth, and is very productive of wheat, barley, and oats. Potatoes are raised in great abundance, and are celebrated for their excellent flavor. The average grain yield of San Pete is 450,000 bushels, a great part of which is exported to the mines of Pioche, Tintec, and other mining districts. The future great product of San Pete will be its coal, already attracting much attention, and promising great results.
After dinner we rode on from Fountain Green, on the west side of the valley, south to the small collier hamlet called Wales. This is an absolutely monogamic Mormon town. There had been a feeble attempt on the part of the male members to introduce polygamy, but the women so rudely handled the intruders on their domestic peace, that the men surrendered unconditionally, and now the single broom-stick reigns supreme. No woman has presumed to dispute the sway of a rightful wife since the last audacious hussy was mounted on a rail, and having been carried by these Amazons down to the meadows, was there dumped and left to find her own way out of the neighborhood.
A kind old Welsh couple took us into their little adobe hut of two rooms, giving us the best. There were holes in the roof, the sides, and the floor, thus affording plenty of ventilalion without windows. Mrs. Price told us heart-rending tales of the poverty they had endured before they were now so comfortably situated. Her husband had been superintendent of a colliery in Wales, with a good salary, which he had abandoned for the sake of his religion. "I've often wondered," remarked the thoughtful old woman, "why we couldn't have been Mormons in Wales as well as here, and had some comfort in life besides what we get in religion. They talk about coming to these holy mountains -- well, and aren't there mountains there too, and don't they belong to the Lord just as much?" She did not see the advantages of martyrdom. She had experienced it enough not to hanker after more, and she was the first emigrant we had found in all Utah who was willing candidly to confess that she was sorry she had come, and would now prefer to be living in her old home.
In the morning we rode up to the principal coal mine in the caijon, three miles behind the village. The president of the company, General Williamson; the secretary, Mr. Lynch; the treasurer, Mr. Moore; and the superintendent, Mr. Davis, were all living together in a comfortable log cabin, serving them for sleeping, cooking meals, store-room, offices of their various departments, and other general purposes.
They received us very politely, and Mr. Davis escorted us further up the canyon to the place where the works are in active progress, explaining all matters of interest by the way.
These coal mines, destined to exert a powerful interest on the prosperity of the Territory, if anticipations are realized, were discovered nineteen years ago by Price and Reese, two laboring men. The coal soon came into common use for the purposes of smitheries. Very good coke was made long ago, and carried by tedious muleback and wagon journeys to Salt Lake. This was discontinued when the Union Pacific Railroad, being completed, was able to deliver coke from Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania, at a less price than it could be afforded from this comparatively
1875.] THROUGH UTAH. 619
near locality. Coke is now thus placed at Sandy for $33 per ton.
Fifty miles of railroad having been already completed in the direction of San Pete, and the wagon roads having been much improved, contracts have been recently made to deliver the San Pete coke of an equal quality at Sandy for $26. Here there is a saving of $7 per ton in the most important element of bullion production, next to the mining itself. When the Utah Southern is finished to Nephi, and the narrow gauge road of twenty-five miles to connect San Pete valley with this terminus is constructed, coke can be placed at Sandy for $15 per ton, and then the low grade silver mines will all become productive.
These coal mines were first opened on a large scale in August, 1874. In the last week in October, 210 tons were taken out. As they are still further developed, it is calculated that by January next they will yield 100 tons daily, and within the year Mr. Evans is confident that 5,000 tons per day can be produced, should there by any possibility be such an enormous demand. The veins are distinctly traced for seven and three-quarters miles. Where we saw it it was a solid stratum of five feet and eight inches, enclosed in fiat limestone walls, and running into the mountain at a pitch of twenty degrees. Along this incline they have run a shaft two hundred and fifty feet, and from various points have drifted tunnels of from four hundred and fifty to six hundred feet. Sixty men are now employed at the works. The actual cost of mining is $2.50 per ton, and it is sold at $4 on the dump. The coke is made at the month of the canyon, and the full cost of it there turned out is $4 per ton. It cannot probably be made for less in Pennsylvania.
Sandy is little more than one hundred miles from San Pete. Pittsburgh is distant somewhat more than two thousand miles. Then if the silver mines are worked advantageously with their ore smelted by coke brought from such a distance, what an impetus will be given them when coke and coal of equal quality to that brought from the East can be obtained by railroad from mines only one hundred miles away.
X.
WE left the hospitable mud thatch of Mr. Price at Wales on a lovely Sunday afternoon. Sabbath it might more appropriately be termed, for all animate and inanimate nature seemed to be at rest. The slow pace of our lazy ponies was so near to a standstill that so far as using them is considered we could not be accused of breaking the commandment, for they certainly did no work.
As for ourselves, we did not "sit under" any preacher, but on our saddles we sat under the smiles of the great Creator who made such days as this for the enjoyment of his creatures.
Descending the bench sloping from the western mountains, the little villages of Mount Pleasant, Spring City, Maroni, and Ephraim were in full view under the mountains on the eastern side of the valley,their green orchards starting up like oases in the sage-brush desert. Only seven years since they were all abandoned, when the Indians ravaged the valleys of San Pete, Sevier, and the surrounding country. Their present condition evinces the energy the settlers have displayed in rebuilding their homes. With a prudent foresight of future possible troubles from the same quarter, they have taken care in every town to erect substantial stone forts. These are not unlike many old European fortresses of the middle ages, being provided with loopholes for rifle shooting, as those were for the use of bows and arrows. This is quite sufficient, as the Indians are unprovided with artillery. Some of them have been furnished, by greedy and unscrupulous traders with the best Henry rifles. We occasionally meet bands of Indians armed in this way and belted with metal cartridges.
620 THROUGH UTAH. [NOVEMBER,
These fellows, although now peaceable perforce, carry in their devilish faces the inclination to pull the triggers of their fancy weapons whenever they can do so with impunity. Most of them, however, are but rudely armed, some still carrying old flint locks, and not a few relying upon their original bows and arrows. But the same disposition is left in them all to use whatever will serve the purpose of getting a white man's scalp.
It was but twelve miles' travel from Wales to Ephraim, the most southern town of importance in San Pete. As we came down from the western bench we passed over three miles of river bottom watered by the San Pete, a narrow, sluggish stream that is tapped by irrigating ditches several miles above. The villages on the benches are watered, and their gardens made productive, by the torrents from the canyons, while the farming lands that produce grain at the rate of forty bushels of wheat to the acre, and other crops in like abundance, are spread over the rich bottoms of the meadows.
The cattle either find pasturage on the benches and in the canyons or are herded on the low lands. Ephraim contains about 1,700 inhabitants. As we entered it on this quiet Sunday evening, it would have seemed like a city of the dead had it not been too beautiful for such a melancholy idea.
The Mormons believe in spirits of the air. These might have been dwelling here unseen. They could not have had a more heavenly home on earth. Lovely as were the many villages we had seen, this last one, with its neat cottages, and streets shaded by long lines of trees, with not a sound to break the stillness of the air but that of the running roadside streams, and the setting sun gilding the snowy mountains in its background, leaves in our memory a picture that will not fade when many of the others pass away in this ever-changing panorama.
At last the herd boys came driving in their cows, and the blowing of their horns, the tinkling of the bells, and the lowing of the cattle awakened the little town from its dreamy repose. A few people came out from their cottages and leaned listlessly over the fences. We asked of one the direction to the hotel, and were there kindly received by the landlord, who with his wife did every thing in their power to make us comfortable.
Ephraim is almost entirely settled by Danes. In the evening we attended the "meeting" in a large, tastefully built church. It stands in the centre of the stone-built fort, presenting a formidable appearance, surrounded by walls and bastions. The preaching might have been in Danish in so far as it conveyed any instruction to us. Few of the speakers had pure English at command, but they all seemed to comprehend each other with the same accustomed facility with which we understand "Pigeon English" in China. The Church does not encourage the countenance of old national habits or language in Utah. Therefore the new comers are requested to speak in English as best they can.
Now and then we could make out a little of the discourse. In descanting upon the "United Order" which Brigham Young is laboring to introduce, one of the German brethren observed, "Yen de Presdent tell vat he tinks am richt, I vas alvays know das ist richt; who vas ever know him vas tell lie? If angel vas coom down from himmel and vas say someting dif'frent, I moost believe der angel vas lie. Cause vy? Yasn't ter duyvil fix himself up like angel mit shnake's face and coom 'to ter garden mit Adam and Eve and tell 'em lies? Brigham Young is ter great prophet. I don't believe vat all de priests in de voorld say agin him. He is yoost like Lijah yen he shtand oop agin der fier hoonderd und fimfsig prophets von Baal, and beat dem all."
On the next day I had a pleasant talk with Bishop Peterson. He is the "husband of one wife" and several more. He looked upon polygamy as a hardship, but a duty, expressing not only a perfect willingness but a
1875.] THROUGH UTAH. 621
wish that the question might be fairly tried by the supreme court. If the law of 1862 and the Poland bill are declared to be constitutional he will cheerfully refrain from being marrried any more. In fact he would be glad of an excuse for not complying any longer with revealed orders, when the orders of the Government, legally enforced, oppose them.
One of the Mormon theories being that the air is full of disembodied spirits in want of earthly habitations in which to do penance for their sins, in order to obtain salvation our good friend has hitherto considered it his duty to "provide tabernacles" for them to enter in. He who provides the greater number of tabernacles is instrumental in saving the greatest number of distressed spirits, and is accordingly a benefactor to the spirit world, deserving of the highest exaltation.
That is a man's excuse for polygamy.
The woman, being likewise engaged in the propagation of tabernacles, gains for herself also exaltations in proportion to the tabernacles produced. This glorious hope of the future reconciles her to the humiliation of her condition, to the mere participation of her husband's affection, to a small share in his property, to jealousy, heart-burnings, domestic quarrels, and to all the unmentionable miseries of this damnable system. It is true that Brigham Young urges it only upon those men who think that they are able to support more than one family, and upon those women only who think that they will be happy in the relation. But I have not yet seen one man who has become richer by polygamy, while I have met hundreds who were impoverished by it, nor in all the families we have visited in our extended tour, where the subject is always broached by the Mormon women themselves, have there been found but three individuals among them who claimed to be happy.
Bishop Peterson gave us an interesting narrative of the Indian raids and the consequent sufferings of the settlers who, unable to defend themselves, have sought shelter in the rocky fastnesses of the mountains. The United States Government afforded them not the slightest aid. The Bishop observed, with no more bitterness than was warranted by the fact, that the only troops that had been sent to Utah came as enemies, not as friends to the Mormons. He thought that it was unreasonable in the Government to exercise control over their social relations, while it treated them as a separate and distinct people by leaving them to fight their own battles.
We were taken into the large co-operative store, and told with pride of the great dividend of sixty per cent. declared last year. This seems enormous, but it is really nothing more than the taking out of one pocket and putting into the other. Almost every purchaser is a stockholder. If he gets sixty per cent, dividends -- always, by-the-by, payable in goods -- it is only because he pays sixty per cent. too much for all that he buys. The system differs from the effects of a high tariff, inasmuch as the people who pay the high duties that make high prices do not receive again the profits. These go into the pockets of monopolists. The Utah farmer pays himself back. The people of the United States pay manufacturing corporations. That is all the difference.
XI.
IN a succeeding chapter will be found a relation of the experiences of travel from the little town whence my last communication was written to the southern point of our journey. Among the places worthy of remembrance on the route, Richfield, the county town of Sevier valley, is most prominent. The valley, fifty miles long, watered by the river of the same name, is easily irrigated, and although it has not been at all under cultivation until very recently, has abundant promise for the future.
This town is the residence of Joseph
622 THROUGH UTAH. [NOVEMBER,
A. Young, a favorite son of the prophet. He is a leader of the new "United Order," and is said to have invested all his property in that communistic scheme. We happened to be in Richfield, as in Gunnison, at the same time with Brigham Young and his party of about twenty persons, who were on their way to "Dixie," as the extreme south of Utah is termed.
The imperial crowd being entitled to the best hospitalities of the people, unbelieving Gentiles could expect but poor accommodations unless they chose to attach themselves to the suite. Brigham himself was very ill, making no public appearances on the route, and although we were acquainted with several of the elders who accompanied him, we kept aloof from their society, as their journey was a sort of religious procession of praying and preaching in which we were not especially interested.
When notice is given that he is expected in a settlement on his line of march, a cavalcade goes out to meet him and when he leaves he is escorted in the same way until he is met by other horsemen. The poor old gentleman can only look from a window of his carriage and thank them with a silent blessing. It is perhaps his last journey. Twenty-seven years ago, in his full vigor of mind and body, he made his entrance through the wild Emigration canyon in what is now the fruitful United States Territory of Utah.
Then it was a Mexican desert, uninhabited, save by roving savages, unproductive of a blade of wheat or a single garden vegetable or fruit. Now he leaves the city whose foundations he then laid. More than a hundred miles north of it the country is already thickly peopled, and as he travels through these valleys three hundred miles to the south, he beholds thousands of acres tl~at have just yielded a bountiful harvest, thousands of cattle and sheep grazing upon them, and in the hills, orchards, and gardens, lovely villagcs, and above all tens of thousands of happy, industrious people settled in these towns and on their farms, every one of whom is indebted to his energy and perseverance.
I cannot yet comprehend his character. I cannot believe that a man of his astuteness could have been totally led away by the delusions of Joseph Smith, nor can I think that one of his unswerving fidelity to the religion he has embraced, maintained, and successfully propagated is a consummate hypocrite. At all events I am persuaded that he is now convinced of his own sincerity. He looks upon the end of his labors as justifying the means taken to achieve the grand result.
Utah is not the only portion of the country that has felt his influence. Its early settlement made the long tramp of the California pioneers more endurable, and advanced the building of the Pacific railroads many years. The pilgrims across the desert here found the refreshments they so much needed, and when the railroad approached this region the able-bodied men turned out en masse to aid in its construction.
There have been committed in the early years of the settlement by the Mormons, single murders rivalling in atrocity those now perpetrated in the mining camps with horrible frequency by Gentiles; but to reproach the Mormons as a people with wholesale deeds as premeditated, or to accuse Brigham Young of instigating them, are slanders worthy only of those who invent them and sustain them for base political ends.
The Mountain Meadow massacre, a crime unparalleled in barbarity by either Mormon or Gentile, furnishes the chief ground of these accusations. I have made inquiries in every direction regarding this celebrated, most wretched affair, and am thoroughly convinced that the emigrants themselves excited the animosity of the Indians, who were joined by white men of notoriously bad character. The emigrants were butchered from motives
1875.] THROUGH UTAH. 623
of revenge and plunder. Brigham Young and the Mormon Church had no more concern in its perpetration than the Pope of Rome or the Catholic Church has in any murder committed by men who acknowledge their authority. This is simple justice to Brigham Young. *
The notorious butcher, John D. Lee, who commanded the other murderers on that occasion, has lately been arrested by the United States Marshal, and is now awaiting his trial. I have not conversed with a Mormon who is not rejoiced at his capture. Secretly as the expedition to surprise him was planned, I know personally that Brigham Young was aware of it, and if he had chosen to do so, could have given Lee abundant notice in time for him to make his escape, and I can state from positive information, coming from a Gentile to me, that Brigham expressed himself much pleased with the arrest, because the guilty would be punished and the innocent vindicated.
The whole community will watch the trial of John D. Lee with intense interest. If, after all the professions which Brigham has made of his innocence, he shall be proved to be the instigator of those atrocious murders, it will be the downfall of his power and of his religion. With all their faith and the fanaticism, the Mormon people have enough of reason left in them to lead them to serious reflections if that should be the result. The truth will soon be elicited, and it will be seen if I am right or wrong in my convictions,
The preaching of "blood atonement" as a doctrine of religion in former years will forever stand out against Brigham Young, although he has long since discontinued its advocacy. His maintenance of the polygamic practice at the present day is a disgrace to his name, but it is contemptibly mean and unmanly to vilify him for crimes of which he is not guilty and to refuse him the credit due for the good that he has accomplished.
His conscience, unless it is perverted by fanaticism, may mar the satisfacation with which he views the accomplishment of his work. Still, it will not be wonderful if he draws the ballance greatly in his own favor. Like the patriarchs whom he has sought to imitate, whose good deeds were many and whose misdeeds were few, hc will be ready to depart in peace and to be gathered to his fathers now that his eyes have seen the "salvation of the Lord."
President George A. Smith, next in council to Brigham Young himself, accompanied him on this journey. Mr. Smith is my favorite apostle. We have often heard him preach at the Tabernacle in Salt Lake. His views are more liberal than those advocated by many of his coreligionists, and his plain, practical teachings are instructive to Gentiles as well as to Mormons. He is fifty-seven years of age, of tall, portly figure, with a face of infinite jollity and expressive humor. This crops out so frequently that the audience always expects to be entertained when "Brother George A." holds forth.
His private character is without reproach, excepting on the score of polygamy. I do not believe all we hear of grasping propensities of the heads of the Church, for on visiting Mr. Smith at his residence in the city, we found him living in the simplest manner consistent with ordinary comfort, and I do not know a single one of the apostles, elders, or bishops not engaged in some lucrative business of his own, who maintains a style above that of a laboring mechanic.
Mr. Smith is the historian of Utah. He came out originally with Brigham Young, and his personal experiences, united with the material he has so diligently collected from other sources, would make volumes of exceeding interest and entertainment. On the occasion of this visit to Richfield we attended the crowded meeting and listened to the discourses of Mr. Smith and several others.
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* The trial of Lee, concluded since this opinion was expressed, has fully confirmed it, the innocence of Brigham Young having been established.
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Much stress was laid upon the new "United Order" scheme of Brigham Young, and many plausible arguments adduced in its favor. Mr. Smith told us of his adventures thirty years ago, when he explored the south of Utah, before the idea of a settlement in this region was seriously entertained; of his camping out when the mercury stood 19 deg. below zero; how an Indian and a lonely trapper stole his mule; of the lesson he then got "never to trust a mule, an Indian, or an old bachelor;" how after the settlement was made at Salt Lake he preceded Fremont three years in the exploration of this valley of San Pete; how his party was snowed up for a whole winter in the neighboring mountains, and how under difficulties and dangers he had travelled the whole Territory from north to south, three or four times a year, for several years, to get an accurate knowledge of its topography.
Then he gave the people some very good advice: "Make the most of materials at hand, without procuring luxuries from abroad. Skin every dog or cat that dies or is killed. If that don't give you leather enough for shoes besides what you get from cattle, make the soles of wood; wooden soles are preventatives of rheumatism. They are better than the sponge soles you import from the East. Raise your own sheep. Manufacture your own wool. Make your women useful as well as ornamental. Work outside, and they will be encouraged to work inside. You have got everything you want right here at home -- the best of land, the best of cattle, the best of religions, the best of everything. Thank God for his continual mercies. Pray to Him morning and evening, and at every meal. When the railroad is completed you can have some luxuries you cannot now procure, and you can pay for them in the abundant excess of your own productions. Pay up your tithing like good Latter-Day Saints; not a particle of it shall be misappropriated. We want more temples for the Lord, and whatever excess there is shall go to bringing people from all parts of the earth to participate with you in your blessings. Never get into debt. When you take up land pay for it as soon as you can, whether obliged to do so or not; for I have always noticed that people get into debt when they are flush and have to pay up when money is scarce. To those of you who were so unfortunate as to have come to this country with your clothes on I would say, Get clothed at once with all the rights of an American citizen. You have a judge in this district who is a just and honorable man, and who does not consider himself a missionary sent here expressly to convert you. If you lived in Salt Lake City I would tell you to see Judge MeKean and his whole "ring" in perdition before taking the false oath he seeks to impose. If you are drawn on a jury don't shirk your duty. Don't lie before God or man. If a man is indicted for polygamy entered into since the law of 1862, and it is proved, convict him accordingly. We know that law is unconstitutional, and we can beat them in their own courts. Don't be nervous about it. Take a little valerian tea and put your trust in God. Everything will come out all right. Show to the world that you are a quiet, law-abiding people. We have stood a good deal, and we can stand it to the end. May every blessing attend you. I ask it of the Eternal Father in the name of Jesus Christ. Amen."
We have listened to worse sermons than this.
On the fourth day of September the whole community of Utah was saddened by the death of this excellent man. His history is almost as remarkable as that of Brigham Young. Indeed, he was the right hand of the head of the Church. He most sincerely believed in the inspiration of his cousin Joseph Smith, and from the date of his baptism into the Church of the Latter-Day Saints in 1832, he devoted unselfishly every day of his life to its interests.
He seemed to entertain the same
1875.] THROUGH UTAH. 625
ideas of polygamy' which, in a letter to me, he attributed to the founder of the sect. He says: "He was a rigidly moral, virtuous, and pure man, and nothing but a sense of the awful responsibility of disobeying the Almighty caused him to teach or practice a principle which increased manifold the responsibilities and burdens of men." A "Gentile" finds it hard to believe that duty is the motive to influence a man in that direction. Nevertheless, knowing the honesty of the writer, I can credit it in his case at least. Bathsheba was certainly not the first wife of the ancient polygamist, but Bathsheba was the first of his modern imitator; and he died in the arms of this, the only woman whom he styled his "wife." The simplicity of the Mormon apostle is illustrated in the directions given for his burial:
I wish to be buried in a coffin much larger than my natural size. The expenses of an unostentatious funeral to be paid out of my individed estate; the slab which designates my resting place shall not cost over one hundred dollars.
A coffin made of red pine or other mountain wood, plain but well made, large enough to give ample room for the body to swell, with no unnecessary ornaments about it, and three half-inch holes bored in the bottom, will be sufficient.
At the funeral I should like to have either the 15th chapter of 1st corinthians, or the vision in the Book of covenants, or an appropriate extract from the Book of Mormon read. A few remarks by the bishop of the ward, or some of the elders, exhorting the audience to faith and good works, such as would be calculated to impress my children and friends with the importance of keeping the commandments of God, and such as would extend comfort and consolation to the minds of the living, would be in accordance with my wishes. Let those who attend the funeral do so in clean attire, such as they would wear to meeting on other occasions.
Mr. Smith combined with his employment of preacher and teacher the active habits of an explorer. The country is as much indebted to him as to Fremont for tracing out passes for the transcontinental railroads. The records of his surveys are treasured in the public library of Salt Lake City. We were indebted to him for much valuable information of a secular kind, as well as for an insight of the workings of the Church. The subjoined hastily written letter, in reply to a note addressed him asking for some of his personal experiences in Southern Utah, may be quoted as illustrating the energy displayed by himself and his comrades. The school-room and school library of the pioneer schoolmaster teach us how education may be obtained under difficulties:
ST. GEORGE, WASHINGTON Co., UTAH,
Nov. 14, 1874.
Dear Sir: Your letter from Cove Fork of November 7 has been received. I should take much pleasure in giving you the desired information concerning the settlements in the southern country, with the history of which I have been familiar from the beginning, were it not thai my time is so much occupied with other duties as to render it impossible.
I camped with my party In Cove on the 4th of January, 1851. We had six hundred head of animals, and it was with great difficulty that we could get water enough from the stream and springs to water them. We arrived on the site now occupied by Parowan on the 18th. It cost us five hundred days' work to make a road up Centre Creek canyon to get timber suitable for building. Our party consisted of one hundred and eighteen men, thirty of whom had their families with them. The fort we erected was fifty-six rods square. A blockhouse used for meetings and schools formed a bastion to cover two of the walls. A five-cornered log building formed a bastion for the other two walls, and contained a piece of artillery. Both bastions were loopholed for musketry. A corral enclosing four acres, in the centre of the fort, protected our stock. It is now the public square of Parowan. Our nearest neighbors north were at Manti and Payson, on the south, five hundred and seventeen miles. In about five months most of the men without families returned home, leaving the residue, with a few accessions, to occupy the fort.
I ploughed the first ground and sowed the first wheat; built the first saw and grist mill -- two hundred and twenty miles from any other. I taught the first school opened In the settlement; and some of my scholars are now the principal men in the county. My first grammer class of eighteen had only one book -- a copy of Kirkham's grammar -- the instrnction being given by lectures and repetition. Our school-room was out of doors by an immense fire of dry cedar and pinion pine; around which we spent the evenings of the entire winter.
Walker, the Ute Indian chief, who had for half a generation been the terror of the entire California frontier, came to our camp with his warriors, and we were very much pleased to find he was disposed to be friendiy. He was mourning over the bad luck he had had on his last raid for stealing horses, which he said San Pitch, his brother, had made a failure of; although he was lucky In stealing one thousand head of horses at one haul, he got sleepy, and the Spaniards overtook him and got back eight hundred of them. I persuaded Walker to quit that business, as the Americans had got possession of California, and they would surely scalp him if he continued it. Walker and
626 THROUGH UTAH. [NOVEMBER,
his Indians have never made a raid on California since, though they had made an annual raid for twenty-five years previous. Beaver. county was settled in 1856. I was there wheu the first house was erected, and we had a grand feast on a black-tailed deer which we had been fortunate enough to kilL The house was brought from Parowan.
I was also present with Anson Call and thirty families, who located in Millard county in the fall of 1851. This settlement for about five years was the nearest neighbor to Iron county, distant about one hundred miles, the way the roads then ran.
We used to accommodate one another by lend-lug soap, kettles, ploughs, wagons, etc., and go. lug from one settlement to the other, to get blacksmithing done and grain ground. What rendered it most Inconvenient, we were obliged to travel in parties sufficiently large to protect ourselves from wild Indians.
Washington county was first settled In 1855, by Jacob Hamblin. For many years the settlers went to Parowan to mill, between eighty and ninety miles over an almost Impassable road. It is a source of wonder to a stranger where the men lived who have done the work on the roads in this and Kane counties. It seems as if nothing but a determination to enjoy religious freedom could induce peoole to improve such a country as this.
This county contains ten settlements, of which St. George is the principal. Kane county has twelve settlements. Toquerville is the county seat. Dairying, stock raising, sheep breeding, and fruit raising, are the principal industries of Washington and Kane counties. Cotton Is grown to a limited extent, and does much to supply home consumption. There Is a cotton and woollen mill in successful operation at Washington. The Tabernacle at St. George Is built of red sandstone, dressed, and is the first building for public worship in Utah Territory. In this city there are five commodious school-houses, in which large schools are taught. The walls of the St. George Temple, now being erected, are thirty feet high. Grain crops throughout the southern districts have been light this season, but fruit crops abundant. Bee culture is successfully carried on, the bees having been originally imported from the east and California. During aportion of the summer, July, August, and September, the heat is intense, the thermometer often ranging up to 110 deg. and 114 deg. Fahrenheit in the shade. The climate during the balance of the year, with some exceptions, is delightful.
I am told that there are no drinking saloons in either Washington or Kane counties. Home-made wine is abundant, but I see no signs of its being used immoderately.
I had anticipated meeting you here, and regret your return without seeing the wild country we inhabit, and the enterprising and industrious people who live in it. Mrs. Smith joins me in regards to you and yours, and I remain,
Yours truly,
GEORGE A. SMITH.
The latter part of this chapter, including the letter just quoted, has been, introduced since the news of President Smith's death was received. His prominent position in the Mormon Church offers a sufficient excuse for the extended personal notice. Every right-minded man entertains a respect for sincerity of belief even in those from whom he differs in many questions of doctrine and practice. No one can fail to appreciate the practical character of this old pioneer of religion for his sect, of civilization for his countrymen at large. The good that he has done will live after him in the grateful memories of many others besides those for whose interest his life was especially devoted.
JOHN CODMAN.
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