_ CHIEF EPISODES IN THE
F HISTORY OF UTAH

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CHIEF EPISODES IN THE
HISTORY OF UTAH

BY

LEVI EDGAR YOUNG

CHICAGO

THE LAKESIDE PRESS

1912

Copyrighted 1912

BY

LEVI EDGAR YOUNG

€1)e fLakesttJf ^ttM

R. R. DONNELLEY & SONS COMPANY
CHICAGO

TO HARRIET AND JANE

VVlA)Ull.l 1 'HMKiHAli

PREFACE

This little book is a collection of pen pictures of some of
the important events in the history of Utah. They are writ-
ten as they have been told to the children of the schools and
to my own little girls who have sat and wondered at the trials
and sorrows of their grandfathers and grandmothers. My
hope is that they will inspire a love for history in the hearts
of the children of this state.

Being a grandnephew of the great Mormon leader, Brig-
ham Young, I have had access to the most important mate-
rial concerning the Mormon people. I feel a great desire to
make use of this material in putting before the world a de-
tailed study of the Mormons and their work. If the public
enjoys these little sketches, I shall feel encouraged to tell at
greater length the dramatic ^tory of my people.

LEVI EDGAR YOUNG.

The University of Utah,
August, 1912.

CHIEF EPISODES IN THE HISTORY OF UTAH

BY LEVI EDGAR YOUNG

FOUNDING OF SALT LAKE CITY

The first permanent settlement in Utah was made at
Salt Lake City by a band of Mormon Pioneers from the
State of Illinois. This was July 24, 1847. During the
winter of 1845-46 the Mormons were making extensive
preparations to leave their city of Nauvoo, in the State of
Illinois, and to make homes somewhere in the Far West.
Their leader had been killed, their property ruined by people
not of their religious faith, and, convinced that they could
not make a home in Illinois, they had but one recourse —
they could move to new lands farther west. Could one have
looked into a typical Mormon home in Nauvoo during its
last months of life and activity, he would have seen the
women making tents and wagon covers, stockings and bed-
clothes; and the men busy preparing timber for wagons and
gathering all kinds of old iron for horseshoes and wagon
tires. The Mormons collected all the wheat, corn, bacon,
and potatoes that they could, and exchanged their land for
cattle, horses and wagons. On February 10, 1846, the
first teams crossed the Mississippi and in a few weeks
Nauvoo was deserted.

The Mormons slowly wended their way across the ter-
ritory of Iowa and established Winter Quarters on the
banks of the Missouri, nearly opposite Council Bluffs.
Here they sojourned during the winter of 1846-47. They

7

8 CHIEF EPISODES IN THE HISTORY OF UTAH

built seven hundred log cabins and one hundred fifty dugouts.
Even during that winter they maintained a school. At
Winter Quarters and Kanesville, the two chief camps on the
Missouri, about twelve thousand people were gathered
during that winter. Many died of cold and hunger, for the
season was severe; but the thing most feared, Indian hostil-
ity, was averted and they could still thank God that affairs
were not so bad as they might have been.

The first company of pioneers under Brigham Young left
Winter Quarters in April, 1847. There were one hundred
forty-three men, three women and two children. They
struck off due west and upon reaching the Platte River
continued along its north bank. Until they reached the
foothills of the Rockies they traveled a level, grassy country.
The company was well organized. Every morning at five
o'clock the bugle was sounded to awaken the camp. All
assembled for prayers, then took breakfast, and the second
bugle was sounded when the company began the march.
They traveled about twenty miles each day and at seven
o'clock evening prayers were said, after which the *' brethren
and sisters'' gathered around the fire and sang songs, accom-
panied by the band which Brigham Young had organized
at Winter Quarters. Every Sabbath day was strictly ob-
served. In June they reached the Black Hills and Fort
Laramie. From here they followed the Oregon trail through
South Pass to Fort Bridger. Here they were given some idea
of the kind of country in the vicinity of the Great Salt
Lake, but as to the fertility of the soil everyone was doubtful.
From Fort Bridger the party went through Echo and
Emigration to Salt Lake Valley. Orson Pratt, Erastus Snow
and others were sent ahead and entered the valley of the
Great Salt Lake July 21st. They explored some parts, and
on the 23d staked off land and turned the waters of City
Creek onto the soil. This was the beginning of irrigation in

BRIGHAM YOUNG

9

10 CHIEF EPISODES IN THE HISTORY OF UTAH

the West. The main company under Brigham Young
arrived July 24th, and it is out of respect for him and the
main company that this day is taken as Utah's natal day.

It is interesting to read some of the accounts written at
this time concerning the journey of the pioneers and the
settlement of Utah. Among the most interesting journals

THE PIONEERS IN ECHO CANYON

are those of Erastus Snow, Wilford Woodruff and Orson
Pratt. The following is a short extract from the journal of
Erastus Snow:

'^Monday, August 2, Brother Henry Sherwood commenced
surveying the city and the public square in the southwest part
was selected for the fortress. This week I was detailed to take charge
of herding all our stock and seven men were selected for herdsmen.
Others were set to watering fields and sowing our turnips. Others
were to get out timber for log houses and a strong company was

FOUNDING OF SALT LAKE CITY

11

organized to make adobes. To those unacquainted with adobe
buildings, I will say that they are very common in New Mexico
and other sparsely timbered countries. Adobes are bricks made of

SCENE IN EARLY UTAH

SCENE IN MODERN UTAH

12 CHIEF EPISODES IN THE HISTORY OF UTAH

gravel and soil and dried hard in the sun instead of being burned
with fuel."

The pioneers settled on the present site of Salt Lake City.
The first camp was made about where the Knutsford build-
ing now stands at the corner of Third, South and State
Streets on the banks of a fork of City Creek. On Sunday,
the 25th of July, all the people assembled for religious wor-
ship. During the first week some exploring was done, and
by August 26th eighty-four acres of land had been plowed
and planted in corn, potatoes, beans, buckwheat and turnips.
A city was laid out and surveyed. At a conference held
August 22d, it was decided to call the town Great Salt
Lake City. Those were busy days. The men made adobes,
built a stockade which they called the Old Fort, hauled
timber from the canyons and made plows and harrows. The
three women were kept very busy cooking.

Wilford Woodruff says in his journal:

^'We have accomplished more this year than can be found on
record concerning an equal number of men in the same time since
the days of Adam. We have traveled with heavily laden wagons
more than a thousand miles over rough roads, through mountains
and canyons, searching out a land as a resting place for the saints.
We have laid out a city two miles square and built a fort of hewn
timber and of sun dried bricks or adobes. This fort encloses ten
acres of ground, forty rods of which are covered with block houses."

After the first company, headed by Brigham Young, left
for the Rocky Mountains, extensive preparations were
made for others to follow. The ^^ First Immigration,''
so-called, consisted of 1,553 souls under the command of
Parley P. Pratt. It left Winter Quarters July 4, 1847. The
people were well organized into companies of 100 wagons,
these again into companies of fifty and ten respectively,
each with its captain or commander. There were 580
wagons, 2,213 oxen, 124 horses, 887 cows, 358 sheep, 35 hogs.

FOUNDING OF SALT LAKE CITY

1^

and 716 chickens. This company arrived in Salt Lake City
on September 19th. By the end of the year, some 4,000
people had settled in the valley of the Great Salt Lake.

In one of the old Juvenile Instructors, you will find a
good description of the first winter in Salt Lake City, written
by one who experienced its hardships. He says :

RIO GRANDE DEPOT, SALT LAKE CITY

"The pioneers after their arrival laid the foundation of a fort
and erected a number of houses which they left for those who came
in after them to occupy. Some of these were constructed of adobe,
others of logs. The adobes were much longer than is the fashion
now. They were eighteen inches long and proportionately wide
and thick. The fort was called the Old Fort and it stood on what
is now known as the Sixth Ward Square.^ When the companies
which followed the pioneers came into the valley, additions were
made to the south and north of the fort, which were called the
South and North Forts. They were connected with the Old Fort

^This is the park near the Rio Grande depot now called Pioneer
Square.

li CHIEF EPISODES IN THE HISTORY OF UTAH

by gates and each of them had gates through which the people
went to and from their fields. The houses were built close together
with the highest wall on the outside. This formed the wall of the
fort. The roofs sloped toward the inside and all the doors and
windows were on the inside so as to make the houses more secure

^/^^^

^^^<}.M:^^

JOHN CRISMON'S GRIST MILL
Where the Lafayette School Now Stands

against attack. Not having had any experience in this climate,
and supposing from the appearance of the ground in the summer and
fall that it was very dry, they made the roofs of the houses very
flat. The result was that nearly every house leaked during the
first winter. But that first winter was a mild one, which was most
fortunate for the people, for neither their food nor their clothing
was of such a character as to enable them to endure very cold
weather. Many were without shoes and the best covering they
could get for their feet were moccasins. Their clothing, too, was

THE GULLS 15

almost exhausted and the skins of the goat, deer and elk which they
could procure were most acceptable for clothing, though far from
pleasant to wear in the rain or snow/'

It was a winter of hard work and careful planning. Flour
was doled out by weight to each family, sago and thistle
roots were eaten, and now and then the hunters brought in
a little meat. Those who were in want had to be helped,
but everyone was willing to share with his neighbor. In
the late autumn of 1847, Charles Crismon built a gristmill
on City Creek and the wheat brought to the valley by the
immigrants was ground; but there was no bolting cloth, so
the bran and shorts had to be eaten with the flour.

Says one of the pioneers:

"The beef used during the winter was generally very poor.
Most of the cattle had reached the valley late in the season, and
then had to be worked hard to prepare for winter. Of course,
they had no chance to improve in flesh. Butter and tallow were
in consequence very scarce, and the people craved them. There
was nothing that could contribute to sustain Hfe that was wilfully
allowed to go to waste. If an ox mired and was too poor to get
out he was killed and his carcass used for food. Big gray wolves
came down from the mountains in March, 1848, and killed several
of the cattle which were feeding on the east bench in sight of the
fort. Those parts of the meat which the wolves had not torn were
used for food/'

THE GULLS

The winter finally passed and in the spring of 1848 the
pioneers planted five thousand acres of wheat. The pros-
pects were good for a big harvest and the people were very
happy. The plowing and planting had been done with care.
Immigrants were arriving from the east almost every day,
and their souls were touched with gladness as they looked

16 CHIEF EPISODES IN THE HISTORY OF UTAH

for the first time upon the "land of promise.'' A large tract
of land had been sown to wheat that it might at harvest
time be gathered into a general storehouse for the use of the
people in time of need. Much rain fell during the spring,
and the indication for a fruitful yield could not have been
better.

During the last week in May, however, a report became
prevalent that black crickets were attacking the wheat
fields just north of the city. At first the rumor caused little
commotion, but within a week the crickets had spread to
neighboring fields and in a few days the devouring horde
swept over the entire valley, leaving neither blade nor leaf
in their path. Men and women turned out en masse to
fight the pest, driving them into ditches or burning them
upon piles of reeds, striving in every way to beat back the
devouring host; but all in vain. The black pest increased
as days went on. A terrible fear swept through the hearts
of the people. The women and children cried with fright.
Hundreds of immigrants were expected that summer, and
as a rule they reached the valley with very little food. If
this crop were destroyed they must all starve. A day of
prayer and fasting was appointed, for the people had great
faith in God.

What happened then has been regarded as a miracle ever
since by large numbers of the people of Utah. From the
shores and islands of the Great Salt Lake came the gulls,
myriads of these snow-white birds, with wild cries winging
their way. A new fear arose in the minds of the people as
they saw the birds alight in their fields, a fear that another
foe had come to complete the destruction of their growing
grain. Their joy may be imagined when they saw the gulls
pounce upon the black crickets and gorge themselves, return-
ing again and again to the repast. The people gazed in
amazement upon the birds and their beneficent work. No

THE FORTY-NINERS 17

wonder it seemed to them a sheer miracle from heaven, a
direct and convincing answer to their prayers. For six
days the destruction went on, and on the evening of the
sixth day, which was Sunday, these winged deliverers quietly
flew back to their island homes in the bosom of the Great
Salt Lake.

To this day the people of Utah are grateful to the birds.
Indeed, the State Legislature has passed a law forbidding
anyone to harm a gull. Just as the eagle is the emblem of our
country, so the gull is the emblem of our state. As the eagle
stands on our national shield, so the gull appears on the
main piece of the great silver service given by the state for
use on the battleship Utah.

The crops had not been entirely saved, so the following
winter was a starving time for the people. They were put
upon short rations and many were reduced to such straits
that they dug roots for food and boiled them together with
hides that had been used for roofing the cabins. In Feb-
ruary, 1849, the bishops of the various wards took an
inventory of the bread stuffs in the valley and officially
reported that there was little more than three-fourths of a
pound for each inhabitant. But despite the suffering no one
died of starvation, and no one grew disheartened.

THE FORTY-NINERS

To the settlers of Utah, the migration of the gold-seekers
to California was a boon and blessing. They brought
boots and shoes, carts and wagons, ginghams and woolen
goods, which they sold cheap to lighten their load on the
last hard stage of the long j ourney . They bought horses of the
settlers, paying as much as two hundred dollars for a horse
or mule that before their coming there was no market for
at all. The Frontier Guardian says:

18 CHIEF EPISODES IN THE HISTORY OF UTAH

"For a light Yankee wagon sometimes three or four heavy ones
would be given in exchange, and a yoke of oxen would be thrown
in at that. Common domestic sheeting sold from five to ten cents
per yard by the bolt. The best of spades and shovels sold for
fifty cents each. Vests that cost one dollar and fifty cents in St.
Louis were sold at Salt Lake for thirty-seven and a half cents.
Full chests of joiners' tools which sold in the East for one hundred

EMIGRANTS PASSING THROUGH SALT LAKE CITY

fifty dollars were sold in Salt Lake for twenty-five dollars. Indeed,
almost every article could be bought at a price fifty per cent below
the wholesale price in eastern cities."

Again, it seems Providential that just when the resources
of the Utah pioneers were at the lowest ebb, when they most
needed help, these emigrants on the way to California should
flock to their city, eager to dispose of the very goods thstv
the pioneers most needed. Many enterprising eastern men,

THE HANDCART COMPANIES 19

upon hearing of the influx to the gold fields of California,
determined to go there and took with them large stocks of
merchandise for which they expected a ready sale in the new
gold camps. They Httle realized the hardships of the jour-
ney, and, upon reaching Salt Lake and discovering that the
hardest part of the trip was still ahead of them, they were
glad to dispose of their stock for anything that it would
bring. Particularly were they anxious to obtain mules and
horses, the very things that the Utah people could best
spare. In the churches of that time, many a fervent thanks-
giving went up to God for the aid that had been brought to
the people by the Forty-Niners.

THE HANDCART COMPANIES

One of the saddest episodes in the history of Utah is the
story of the Handcart Companies. Every year thousands
of people from Europe and America gathered at the Missouri
River points enroute to Utah. There was the center of
their church organization which to them was Zion. To Zion
they would go in spite of everything. How to bring so
many people across the plains was a problem. There was
not money enough to provide transportation by wagon for
such a multitude, so Governor Young hit upon a unique
plan. In a letter of 1855 to Franklin D. Richards, he says:

''I have been thinking how we shall operate another year.
We cannot afford to purchase wagons and teams as in times past.
I am consequently thrown back upon my old plan — to make
handcarts and let the emigration foot it, drawing with them the
necessary supplies and having a cow or two for every ten. They
can come just as quick, if not quicker and much cheaper. Since
they will not have to wait for the grass to grow, they can start
earlier and escape the prevailing sickness of mid-summer which
annually lays so many of our brethren in the dust. A great

20 CHIEF EPISODES IN THE HISTORY OF UTAH

majority of them walk now even with the teams that are provided
and have a great deal more care and perplexity than they would
have if they came without teams. They will need only ninety
days rations from the time of their leaving the Missouri River.
Indeed, since settlements now extend up the Platte, less will suffice.
The carts can be made Hght and strong, without a particle of iron,
and one, or if the family be large, two of them, will bring all that
the family will need upon the plains."

MAIN STREET IN 1860

The plan was put into operation in the spring of 1856
and worked well for those companies that started early
enough to reach Salt Lake City before winter. In the
early autumn of 1856, three large companies of nearly 500
people each, arrived in the valley of the Great Salt Lake.
They had tramped more than 1,300 miles from Iowa City to
Salt Lake City, drawing their supplies in handcarts. Chil-
dren, as well as their fathers and mothers, walked, and
many of them had neither shoes nor stockings during the
latter part of the journey. For pluck and endurance this
is a record that has never been equaled.

THE HANDCART COMPANIES 21

Five companies in all undertook the journey that first
year; but the two that started latest had a dreadful time.
James G. Willie commanded one and Edward Martin the
other. They had been delayed in leaving the Missouri
River and were caught in the piercing blasts of winter on
the Platte and the Sweetwater. Many of the emigrants
little realized the length of the journey to Utah and for this
reason they were ill prepared to face the rigor of winter on
the plains. Some of the handcarts broke down; sickness
and lack of proper food dispirited the marchers and the
knowledge that they were far from Zion disheartened many
of the women and children. Thinly clad and poorly fed they
labored on and on and when they were put upon half rations
before more than half the journey was completed, despair
seized them. The company under Edward Martin made a
camp in a ravine between the Platte and the Sweetwater
in the latter part of October. Food became so scarce that
the marrowless bones picked up from the prairie were
boiled for soup. Says one of the survivors of that company:

''I cried for bread and meat every day, but nothing could be
given me to soothe the gnawings of my hunger.^*

To understand why the earlier companies suffered less
from lack of food than those which crossed the plains in the
fall, you must recall that the buffalo was a migratory animal,
starting from Texas and the Southland as early as grass
appeared in the spring and grazing northward all summer.
At the time when the first three companies crossed the plains
the buffalo herds were there. Indeed, they were sometimes
so numerous as to impede the progress of the pilgrims. But
by the time the companies of Willie and Martin came the
buffaloes had moved northward to their fall range in
Montana. This explains why the great plains would be
teeming with animal life when one traveler crossed them

22 CHIEF EPISODES IN THE HISTORY OF UTAH

and absolutely bare of game when another made the
journey.

The October Conference was in session at Salt Lake City
when Brigham Young received word of the sufferings of the
emigrants on the plains. He immediately sent a company of
the strongest men with wagons and supplies under the

BEE HIVE HOUSE AND EAGLE GATE IN 1859

command of Joseph A. Young. This rescue party found
the two companies in a most miserable condition, fed them
and brought them to Salt Lake. That is, they brought in
the survivors, for two hundred fifty of those devoted pil-
grims had died on the plains. Nearly all the deaths that
must be charged against the handcart scheme were suffered
by these two companies. During the four years extending
from 1856 to 1860 more than four thousand emigrants
crossed the plains in this manner and the total number of
deaths was less than three hundred.

We who have never suffered greatly may sit in our com-

SPREADING OUT 23

fortable homes and moralize about the fanaticism that could
impel men to take their wives and children on a tramp of
thirteen hundred miles over deserts and mountains infested
with savages and traversed by dangerous streams. Espe-
cially is it marvelous that any would dare to attempt such
a journey with such simple equipment. But we must all
admit that their simple faith in the watchful care of their
Heavenly Father is an admirable thing and worthy of imi-
tation. Let us also remember that all great achievements
have as their motor power some such sublime faith. Finally,
it is certain that the handcart experiment would have been
a success had common sense been permitted to temper their
zeal and to keep at Iowa City until the following spring the
two companies that did not get ready to start in time to
complete the journey before winter.

SPREADING OUT

From an epistle issued at Salt Lake City by Brigham
Young in March, 1849, we quote the following:

^^We are about to establish a colony of about thirty families in
the Utah Valley, about fifty miles south. We hope soon to explore
the valleys three hundred miles south and also the country as far
as the Gulf of California with a view to settlement and to acquiring
a seaport.^'

This gives the keynote to the expanding policy of the
Mormon leader. Every fertile valley was to be settled, even
to the seacoast. Almost every fertile valley of what is
now Utah was settled by families picked by Brigham Young
for that task. From north to south in a straight line along
the western foot of the Wasatch Range and the High Plateau
settlements stretched from Richmond to St. George. In
every case Brigham Young directed the settlement and
picked the families. Little was left to chance. Just as to-day

24 CHIEF EPISODES IN THE HISTORY OF UTAH

in starting a new herd the careful farmer will take none but
thoroughbreds, so Brigham Young in founding the infant
settlements, carefully selected the best and strongest for
the pioneer work. Probably no less rigorous policy would
have succeeded. No weaklings could conquer the desert,
the Indians, the wild animals, the extremes of climate,

WHERE THE UTAH HOTEL NOW STANDS

and stay in those lonely valleys, hundreds of miles from
the nearest white settlement, long enough to bring water
upon the land and change the desert into the oases that
these settlements are to-day. Colonists went clear into the
northeast, where Green River sweeps around the eastern
escarpment of the Uinta Mountains, and founded Vernal,
Ashley and Jensen, where Ashley and his old trappers were
wont to revel. Strangest of all, Francis Hammond, at the
direction of Brigham Young, dared to lead ten families
^.way to the southeast across Gr^ind River and to settle

SPREADING OUT

25

among the sand dunes and box canyons of the San Juan.
There his descendants are to-day, rich in herds and happy in
their limitless domain.

THE UTAH HOTEL, SALT LAKE CITY

Brigham Young directed the colonizing of the valleys of
Utah and, coming as he did from New England, he under-
stood full well the old English form of village or town govern-
ment. The old English town was the most democratic and
best form of local government known in the world. The
people used to meet in their meeting house and discuss all
affairs pertaining to the town. At these town meetings the
citizens determined what schoolhouses should be built,
what fences should be made, what canals should be dug, what
bridges should be constructed. They also elected officers

26 CHIEF EPISODES IN THE HISTORY OF UTAH

to oversee the affairs of the town. Each citizen had a vote.
It was a pure, democracy. It was peculiarly like the old
Puritan town meeting of New England in that no distinct
line was drawn between religious and civil affairs. The
same meeting might vote to build a schoolhouse and a
church, or to discipline a back-sliding church member or
a town official. This is always likely to be the case when
the entire community is of one religious faith, particularly
when they are developing a new country. In most parts
of Utah there is still more connection between religious and
civic matters than in other sections of the country; but the
old simple days when they were attended to in the same meet-
ing or mixed up in the same resolution, have disappeared
with the pioneer conditions.

Like all people who build homes in a new country, the
Mormons had to make laws and form a government for
themselves. Since they had children to educate and were
chiefly engaged in farming, their first laws pertained to
schools, water supply, roads and bridges. The first act
passed by the Legislative Assembly of the Provisional State
of Deseret was one levying a tax for the building of roads and
bridges and the second act provided for the establishment
of schools. As early as 1850, the University of Deseret was
established by an act of the Legislative Assembly. How-
ever, the people were poor and there were many demands
on their scanty funds, so the University had a precarious
and checkered career for several years. . It was housed
at one time in a private residence and at another in the old
Council House, which stood where the Deseret News Build-
ing is now. In 1870, it took up the Old Wilkins Hotel as
its abode, which it abandoned in 1881 for buildings of its
own. These buildings are now used by the Salt Lake
High School and the Old Wilkins Hotel has become a knitting
factory. The State University of Utah with a campus of

SPREADING OUT

27

90 acres, several good buildings, over a thousand students,
a teaching staff of more than fifty and a large permanent
endowment is the successor of the old University of Deseret.
The name was changed in 1892.

You must remember that this land belonged to Mexico
at the time when the Mormons settled here. It was ceded

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OLD COUNCIL HOUSE WHERE DESERET NEWS BUILDING NOW STANDS

to the United States in 1848 as a result of the Mexican War.
Congress was slow to organize this remote land into a ter-
ritory and to give it a regular government; so the people had
to make a provisional government of their own. They
organized the State of Deseret, copying the legislative,
executive and judicial offices with which they had become
familiar in the eastern states; and asked Congress to admit
this new state to the Union. Congress, however, instead
of granting their petition, organized the Territory of Utah,

28 CHIEF EPISODES IN THE HISTORY OF UTAH

in 1850, and Brigham Young, who had been elected by the
people Governor of the Provisional State of Deseret, was
appointed by President Fillmore Governor of the new
Territory of Utah.

WARS AND RUMORS OF WAR

The policy of Brigham Young and the early settlers of
Utah in dealing with the Indians was modeled on that of
William Penn and the Quakers. Brigham Young said :

'^It is better to feed the Indians than to fight them,^'
and this policy was followed quite generally. What trouble
occurred was the result of friction between hotheads, both
white and red. The leaders on both sides deprecated war
and on all but two occasions avoided serious trouble. Chief
Washakie of the Shoshones once told the United States
Indian Commissioner that the Mormons would share for-
ever the Happy Hunting Grounds of the Indians; '^for,^'
said he, ^Hhey feed us instead of fighting us.''

The first great trouble came in 1853 and lasted for almost
two years. It is known as the Walker War, Walker was
a chief of the Utes who, with his brother, Arropine, and a
numerous band was encamped at the mouth of Payson
Canyon in July, 1853. The Indians ranged far, fishing and
hunting, and one day a small party of them caught some
fish in Spring Creek just outside of Springville. A squaw
entered the cabin of a settler on Spring Creek and proceeded
to barter some fish for some flour. The wife of the settler
gave her about two pounds of flour for the fish — a small
price for today, but we must remember that white flour was
a luxury then. When the squaw showed her bargain to her
lord and master, he knocked her down and beat her shame-
fully. The settler could not bear to see even an Indian
woman abused, so he interfered and whipped the brave.

WARS AND RUMORS OF WAR 29

The squaw meanwhile got up, seized a hatchet, and struck
the white man a vicious blow on the head. At this critical
moment two Indians came running up, one of whom had a
gun. While he maneuvered to get into position to shoot the
white man without hurting the Indian, the settler grasped
the gun barrel. In the struggle that followed the old gun
broke, the Indian keeping the stock, the white man, the
barrel. With this he laid around him so strenuously that
he killed one brave and put the rest to flight. They fled
to Walker^s camp, told of the trouble, clamored for ven-
geance, awakened the slumbering savagery of their comrades
and Walker had no choice but to lead his angry bands to
war.

For almost two years next following there was little
planting or harvesting from Springville south. Payson
was deserted. Nephi was in a state of siege. Spring City
was destroyed. The people of Mt. Pleasant flocked to
Ephraim for the protection of its fort. Manti became the
center of operations for the whites. There gathered the
bands of fighters and thence they proceeded to raid the
strongholds of the Indians and drive them from the valleys.
There was no pitched battle. It was a war of ambuscade
and surprisal. The bands of white men were worn out
chasing Indians that would not stand and fight like men.
How the women and children felt is shown by the quaint
statement of one of the women of Ephraim :

'^We were afraid to go to bed at night for fear that we should
wake up dead in the morning."

Brigham Young, who had great insight into Indian
character and knew many of the secrets of Indian free-
masonry and totem symbolism, met the Ute chiefs, Kanosh,
Walker and Arropine, in council in 1854, and made a treaty
of peace. But peace could not restore the hundreds of

30 CHIEF EPISODES IN THE HISTORY OF UTAH

fields, fences, houses, barns, and ditches that had been
destroyed; the thousands of cattle, sheep, horses, hogs and
chickens that had been lost; or the score of good men that

had been killed.

The development
of Southern Utah
was retarded by at
least ten years by
that year and a
half of rapine. AH
that the Indians
gained were a few
presents given to
their chiefs to bind
the bargain. The
whites gained San-
pitch (Sanpete)
Valley, which was
made over to
Bi igham Young by
Chief Arropine at
the close of the
war.

The second great

trouble was caused

by the attempt of

the United States

Government to

drive the Utes onto

a reservation. It is

known as the Black

Hawk War, because the Ute chief. Black Hawk, was the

main disturber. In 1865 the most prominent Ute chiefs

signed a treaty with the United States Commissioner agree-

CmEF TABBY— OLDEST CHIEF IN UNITED

STATES. BEEN CHIEF FOR 73 YEARS

—AGE 105 YEARS

WARS AND RUMORS OF WAR 31

ing to give up their claims to all other lands in Utah and
to move to the Uinta Valley. The United States agreed
that here they might hunt and fish and trade freely and
that schools should be established for their children. Both
Kanosh and Tabby, the two head chiefs, signed this treaty;
but Black Hawk incited his bands to war, and during

VETERANS OF THE BLACK HAWK WAR— GARFIELD COAST BRIGADE

the two years, from 1865 to 1867, the Indian depreda-
tions in the southern part of the territory were the worst
in our history. They raided the farms, killed the colonists,
and drove off hundreds of horses and cattle. Bands of
hardy volunteers met them in the open, chased them in-
to their canyon strongholds, guarded the settlements and
served as scouts for the militia and the regulars from Fort
Douglas. It was a hard struggle, but the Indians were
finally subdued and all of the Utes driven to the Uinta
Reservation. Here the United States Government built

32 CHIEF EPISODES IN THE HISTORY OF UTAH

Fort Duchesne and established there a military post to
patrol the reservation. This was recently abandoned when
the opening of the reservation to settlement made the
Indian post no longer necessary.

The coming of Johnston's army was the most distressing
episode in the early history of Utah. It threatened to blight
the budding state, but it, too, turned out to be a blessing in
disguise. That you may understand how the trouble
arose between the people of Utah and the Government of
the United States, you must see clearly the great difference
that exists between a territory and a state. You must
remember that whereas the people of a state govern them-
selves, the people of a territory are ruled from Washington.
The people of a state elect their own governor and judges.
The people of a territory have their governor and judges
imposed upon them by appointment of the President of the
United States and their consent is not even asked. Some-
times the President will appoint to these high offices residents
of the territory, as President Fillmore did in 1850; but more
often these offices are given to some outside politician as
payment for political services. When this is the case the
highest offices in the territory are liable to be held by stran-
gers who know little and care less about the people whom
they rule. Every Western territory has suffered from this
system. Oregon had a heart-breaking experience and
Montana, in the early days, was more than once on the
verge of anarchy. The alien governor and judges despised
the wild Westerner as an uncouth boor; and the Western
settler looked upon the alien ruler as a carpet-bagger. This
was a very unfortunate situation and led to trouble in most
of the Western territories but most of all in Utah.

Both sides were frequently rash and hot-headed. In
those days religious differences led to rancor, unknown in
our more liberal or less earnest time. Furthermore, there

WARS AND RUMORS OF WAR 33

was, during the Fifties, a spirit of suspicion and distrust
throughout the entire land. Slavery troubles had led to
open war in Kansas and chief among the pro-slavery men
were the Missourians with whom the Mormons had had
serious trouble a generation earlier. When President
Buchanan appointed officers for Utah who were antagonistic
to the people of Utah, both in religion and politics, the result
could be only disorder. Such officials could not meet the
people in a friendly spirit and the people did not and could
not treat the officials with the respect due to their high office.
President Buchanan's judges were not in sympathy with
some of the laws enacted by the people of Utah. There
were some blue laws on the statute books which we should
not think of passing today and which have no counterpart
except in the blue laws of the Puritans of Massachusetts.
There was one, for example, that made a man liable to a
fine of twenty-five dollars for swearing. Some of the
institutions, too, were peculiar and would not be upheld by
the judges from the East. The Federal officers assumed a
dictatorial tone which angered the people of Utah. Was
not this their land, rescued by them from the desert and the
savage at the price of blood and extreme hardship? Should
they sit supinely by and see their independence trodden
down by an upstart aUen? Such hot counsels on both sides
precipitated an open rupture between the Federal judges
and the people of Utah. The judges found that it became
increasingly difficult to exact the usual deference to the
processes of law. The people, who had been perfectly
docile while the law was administered by their own elected
officers, now looked upon the procedure of the courts as so
many shackles cunningly forged and put into the hands of
strangers to bind them. The chasm widened. Governor
Young took the side of his people. The judges called for
his removal and claimed that the people of Utah had burned

34 CHIEF EPISODES IN THE HISTORY OF UTAH

the court records and put themselves in a state of rebellion.
President Buchanan upheld his judges, deposed Governor
Young, appointed an Indiana man, Alfred Gumming, his
successor, and sent General Albert Sidney Johnston with an
army of twenty-five hundred men to put down the '^rebel-
lion'' in Utah.

The army left Fort Leavenworth in the spring of 1857,
with more than two thousand head of cattle, hundreds of
government wagons and thousands of pounds of rations.
When the people received word of its approach, all was
consternation. Governor Young assured the people that
no harm should come to them and they organized an army
for defense, which was placed under the command of Captain
Lott Smith. He marched to Echo Canyon and fortified
that defile, then went on to Green River and burned many of
the wagons of the army. He carried hostilities no further.
The army went into winter quarters at Fort Bridger. Before
it resumed the forward march. Governor Gumming, who
was a level-headed man, proceeded to Salt Lake City and
met Brigham Young. In this interview the Mormon leader
was assured that no harm should come to his people should
they move back to their homes. Over 30,000 people had
moved from Salt Lake City and the northern settlements,
into the southern valleys, most of them stopping at Provo.
This was during the winter of 1857-58. Their sufferings
had been great and their sorrows almost beyond description.
A survivor of that march, still living in Salt Lake City,
who was then eleven years of age, says :

"We packed all we had in father's one wagon and waited for the
command to leave. At night we lay down to sleep not knowing
when word would come of the army which we thought was coming
to destroy us. Mother went about the house placing everything
in order and mending every bit of clothing we could find, for we
knew that the time would come when we might be in great need of

WARS AND RUMORS OF WAR 35

food and clothing. There were seven of us children in the family.
We put away all our playthings, for the days found us so frightened
that all we did was to follow father and mother from place to place,
looking into their faces for a word of comfort and a look of cheer.
One morning father told us that we should leave with a large com-
pany in the evening. He said little more. There was packing and
the making of bread. Along in the middle of the day father scat-
tered leaves and straw in all the rooms and through my tears I
heard him say * Never mind, little daughter, this home has shel-
tered us, it shall never shelter them.' I did not understand him
then, but as we went out of the yard and joined all the other
people on the main road I learned for the first time that the city
was to be burned should the approaching army attack the people.
That night we camped on Willow Creek in the south end of the
Valley and at ten o'clock every soul with bowed head knelt in
prayer to God. As I dropped to sleep I heard my mother whisper-
ing that the Lord had heard our prayers and that our homes
should not be burned. I cried and cried, but at last I dropped to
sleep."

Peace came to the people. The army never molested
them. It marched through Salt Lake City, without stop-
ping, to Cedar Valley, about forty-five miles southwest,
where it built Camp Floyd. During the two years that the
soldiers stayed there. Camp Floyd was a fine market for
the Mormon farmers. Governor Gumming took the oath
of oflBce and was beloved by the people. Many of the
large wagons brought by the soldiers, together with har-
nesses and other useful equipment, were sold to the people
for hay and flour. In fact, when the army left Utah to
return to the East the people parted with them reluctantly
and some of the soldiers deserted and remained in the
territory. In Bancroft's History of Utah you will find the
following interesting passage:

"During the march of the army, not a house was disturbed, not
a citizen molested; and during its sojourn of over two years in the

36 CHIEF EPISODES IN THE HISTORY OF UTAH

territory, instances were rare indeed of gross misconduct on the
part of the soldiery. The Mormons, who had been eager to fight
the troops, were now thankful for their arrival. Many of the
settlers were still very poor. They had a few cattle and a few
implements of husbandry but little else of this world's goods, save
their farms and dwellings. They were ill-clad and poorly fed, their
diet consisting of preparations of corn, flour and milk, with beet
molasses, and the fruits and vegetables of their gardens. Now
they had an opportunity to exchange the products of their fields
and dairies for clothing and for such luxuries as tea, coffee, sugar
and tobacco."

LIFE BEFORE THE RAILROAD CAME

There were good roads in Utah even before the railroads
came. You will remember that the old Spanish Trail from
Santa Fe and Taos to Southern California, ran through
Utah. After crossing Green River from the east, it divided,
one branch running through Spanish Fork Canyon to Utah
Valley and Lake, and the other through Emery Canyon to
Sevier Valley and Lake. Thence it ran southwestward to
Southern California. Just as the Spaniards used this trail
to drive horses and mules from California to their ranches
in New Mexico, so the Mormon Pioneers traveled it to and
from California. They drove great freight outfits over it,
for the merchants of Salt Lake City had much of their
freight come by ship to San Bernardino, whence it was
conveyed by wagon more than one thousand miles to Salt
Lake City. Much of the stock for the Utah ranches came
over this old trail from Southern California. There was a
Mormon colony at San Bernardino which was established
about the same time that Salt Lake City was founded.
Many men still live in Utah who can tell you thrilling stories
of adventure on the old trail, and narrow escapes from
death through starvation, thirst or Indian attack. State

LIFE BEFORE THE RAILROAD CAME 37

Street in Salt Lake City is the northern end of a great road
that ran southward through Utah Valley, Nephi Canyon
and Sanpete Valley to merge with the old trail in Sevier
Valley. This was the great State Road and before the
railroads came it was the main artery of commerce.

The Oregon trail proper ran almost two hundred miles

MAIN STREET, SALT LAKE CITY, IN 1861

north of Salt Lake City; but from its earliest history its
chief branch was the Salt Lake trail, which ran from Fort
Bridger through Echo and Emigration Canyons to the Salt
Lake Valley. After the rush to California began, this be-
came by far the most used trail. Indeed, after 1848, so
large a part of the travel over the great trail had Salt Lake
City for its objective, that the name Oregon Trail fell into
disuse and the road from the Missouri River to the Far
West came to be known as the Salt Lake Trail, or the Over-
land Trail. Over this road came most of the supplies for
the Utah towns and many men still live in our state who

38

CHIEF EPISODES IN THE HISTORY OF UTAH

spent the entire summer making a single trip to the Missouri
River and back. Now we can reach Omaha in thirty hours.
Not only freight but passengers came in wagons over the
great trail. The Overland Stage, carrying mail and pas-
sengers, was duly advertised in the Deseret News as follows:

TRESTLE 235 FEET HIGH, BINGHAM AND GARFIELD RAILWAY

LIFE BEFORE THE RAILROAD CAME 39

"Mail and passenger coaches between Independence and Salt
Lake City will leave Hawkins Hotel in Great Salt Lake City and the
Noland House in Independence on the first day of each month
at eight a. m., stopping a short time at the following way stations,
viz: Fort Bridger, Green River, Devil's Gate, Foi-t Laramie, Ash
Hollow, Fort Kearney and Big Blue. Every facility and attention
will be extended the passengers to render their trip speedy and
comfortable. For further particulars, apply to the agents."

Salt Lake City was the center whence radiated freight
and stage lines to all parts of the West. Great lines equipped
with fine coaches and fast horses ran eastward to Denver,
Independence, Atchison and St. Joseph and westward to
Sacramento; while less pretentious stages went to the towns
of Southern Utah and the mining camps of Nevada,
California, Idaho and Montana. During the month of June,
1855, the Deseret News ran another interesting advertise-
ment:

"The subscriber begs leave to inform the citizens of Utah that
the United States mail coach for passengers and parcels, will leave
Hawkins Hotel in Great Salt Lake City every Thursday at 6:00
A. M. and arrive at Manti every Saturday at 6:00 p. m. Will leave
Manti every Monday at 6:00 a. m. and will arrive at Great Salt
Lake City every Wednesday at 6:00 p. m. Passengers or parcels
to Union, Draperville, Lehi, American Fork, Pleasant Grove,
Spring ville, Payson, Nephi, Fort Ephraim, and Manti, will be
carried on reasonable terms. John Daily."

We can reach Chicago now from Salt Lake more quickly
than they could reach Manti before the railroads came.

We who read at our breakfast tables the news of what
happened in London the evening previous, can scarcely
imagine what it was to live in Utah before the coming of the
telegraph and the railroad. While it ran, the pony express
carried letters at amazing speed, but only the most impor-
tant mail came by that expensive process. By far the larger

40 CHIEF EPISODES IN THE HISTORY OF UTAH

part came by stage, when it came at all. The early files
of the newspapers are filled with complaints of the loss of
mail and the abandonment of the mail sacks en route. It
was no uncommon thing for heavy snows or high water to
cause the stage driver to unload his mail sacks on the plains
of Wyoming, hoping to pick them up a few months later
when the roads were better. It was still worse with freight.
The big freight outfits left the Missouri River points every
spring as soon as the grass was high enough to furnish
pasture and in the course of the summer arrived at Salt
Lake. That was the only stock the merchant received
during the year and if the supply was exhausted before you
got around to do your shopping, you had to wait until the
next year to get your hat or frock. Livingston and Kinkead,
Gentiles from St. Louis, ran a large store in Salt Lake in
those early days. They advertise in the Deseret News of
August, 1855, as follows:

"Our first train of forty-six wagons, loaded with a very full and
general assortment of new goods, will arrive here about the 15th
instant, and we shall be prepared to open and offer for inspection
and sale, a complete assortment of all the various goods in our line
and at present in demand."

A community so isolated was naturally thrown upon its
own resources for the necessaries of life. Since it was so
hard to buy most things, the people had to make them, or,
if this was impossible, they had to make substitutes. The
men wore buckskin trousers and shirts and their sisters
and mothers spun yarn and made mitts of wool or dressed
the hides of beavers and made fine dress gloves. The women
spun their own wool dresses, and men, women and children
wore moccasins more than boots or shoes. Naturally, the
first factories to be built were sawmills and gristmills.
Tanning was begun in 1850, and by 1853 shoes were being
made in Salt Lake City. This industry has developed into

LIFE BEFORE THE RAILROAD CAME

41

the shoe factory of Z. C. M. I., which is the largest and most
complete west of St. Louis. Necessity is the mother of
invention, as Richard Margetts proved in 1855, when he
made from old wagon tires a machine for extracting the
juice from sugar cane. From that time molasses became
a staple article of diet and the industry has grown until

THE SMELTER AT TOOELE

now Utah is the third state in the Union in production of
sugar. Salt was needed always, and as early as 1847 the
people would journey to the shores of the lake and obtain
it by boiling the water in huge kettles. This was the begin-
ning of the salt industry of to-day. From 1852 on, salt was
shipped to California. The freighter would take a load of
salt and bring back a load of manufactured goods or a drove
of horses. As early as 1855 some of the great deposits of
iVQU ore in Iron County were drawn upon and nails were

42 CHIEF EPISODES IN THE HISTORY OF UTAH

made, but not in quantities sufficient to supply the needs of
the territory. Indeed, the . great Tabernacle was built
without the use of a single nail. A paper mill was built at
the mouth of Cottonwood Canyon, but the industry soon
died for lack of pulp timber to support it. The woolen mill
at Provo, built in 1870, had a more prosperous career and
is still flourishing. The following advertisement from the

BUILDING THE TABERNACLE

Deseret News of May, 1862, will show how ambitious the
pioneers were to built up home industry:

"Ye People of Deseret, Read This: James Shelmerdine begs
to inform the public that if they really feel determined to encourage
home manufactures, let them bring their beaver, wolf, fox, rabbit
and other furs to his hat manufactory on Emigration Street two and
a half blocks east of East Temple Street, and get in exchange good,
home made hats of good quality.''

The theatres and schools deserve special mention. Though
most of this little history deals with the material struggles

LIFE BEFORE THE RAILROAD CAME

43

of the Mormon pioneers — their daily fight with the elements
for food and shelter and raiment — we should be sorry to
leave the impression that this was the whole of their aim

INTERIOR VIEW OF TEMPLE GROUNDS, SALT LAKE CITY

and the sum of their efforts. Nor do we mean to speak of
their strong religious life in this connection. Besides their
religious activities they worked earnestly to improve the
minds and raise the ideals of old as well as young. For
the mature, they founded the Social Hall and the Theatre,
both to provide needful amusement, but both having the
high aim of training the people of Utah to appreciate the
best in dramatic art. And they succeeded well. The
veteran theatre manager of New York, M. B. Leavitt, in

44 CHIEF EPISODES IN THE HISTORY OF UTAH

his recent book, *' Fifty Years of Theatrical Management,"
bears testimony to their success in these words :

*' Sweeping as the statement may seem, I do not believe that the
theatre has ever rested upon a higher plane, both as to its purpose
and its offerings, than at Salt Lake City, the capital of
Mormondom."

For the children, the Mormons founded schools. The
story of the growth of education in Utah is very pathetic.
In the beginning there was no money and teachers taught
simply for the love of teaching and a sense of duty. Their
salary at times was a few bushels of wheat or a sack or two
of flour. The state is full of these men and women who have
given their lives to the cause of education. Clarissa Brown-
ing opened a school in Ogden in 1849. She had brought
with her across the plains a bundle of old newspapers which
she cut up and made into readers for the pupils. Her first
month^s salary was a large piece of buckskin, which she made
into gloves and sold to the passing gold-seekers. The school
was conducted in her little cabin, but in the winter of 1850-
51 it had to be moved into the Bowery, it had grown so
large. Here the children and teacher gathered about a
large campfire and made shift to learn a great deal from
their old newspaper readers. Sarah Pearson Richards is
another name that should be cherished by the school chil-
dren of Utah. She was a refined woman from Massachu-
setts, who crossed the plains with one of the first companies
of emigrants. She organized the school in a wagon, which
was set apart for that purpose, and heard classes while
jolting along over the great trail. Lydia Stanley taught the
first school in Davis County. It was a true open air school,
though not so elaborate as those which the city of Chicago
is now establishing. It was held in a little brush house
and, since there was no stove and they dared not build an

LIFE BEFORE THE RAILROAD CAME

45

open fire in such an inflammable hut, they did without a
fire, except on the coldest days of winter. On such days
they built a large fire outside and any pupil who could no
longer bear the cold within, could get permission to go out
and warm up.

The first school in Utah was opened in the Old Fort, in

■%

k

^

^^K:V7

1^' i

*

■1

1

BRIGHAM YOUNG'S SCHOOL

Northeast Corner of South Temple and State

Salt Lake City, a little more than three months after the
arrival of the pioneers. Mary Jane Dilworth was the first
teacher and the schoolhouse was an old military tent. The
pioneers had brought a number of school books with them,
including copies of the old Lindley readers and Webster's
blue-backed spelling book. The pupils had no paper, but
they made shift to dry bark and to find colored clay with
which to write and draw. The teacher's desk was an old

46 CHIEF EPISODES IN THE HISTORY OF UTAH

campstool and the pupils' desks were hewn logs. Miss
Dilworth was a good teacher and did much for the boys
and girls in that little primitive school. With her Julian
Moses taught a school and organized it into divisions some-
what as we grade schools to-day. He required all the pupils
to bring a copy of the Bible, holding that it was the best
book from which to learn good English.

We have gone a long way from those conditions. Not a
child who reads this book but goes to school in a better
building than the best that the children had in those days.
Some of the handsomest school buildings in the country
are to be found in Utah and such buildings are being con-
structed more profusely year by year. Our expenditures
in the cause of education are infinitely greater than they
were in the early days; but in earnestness, ambition, desire
to accomplish something worthy, and thorough application,
we could probably learn from those who lived when it was
a trying task to go to school.

We shall close this review of life in early Utah with two
echoes from the past. The first is from Captain Stansbury
of the United States Engineering Corps, who spent a winter
in Salt Lake City in 1850, while engaged in surveying Great
Salt Lake and mapping routes for a transcontinental railroad :

*'Our quarters were a small adobe house, unfurnished and un-
plastered, and roofed with boards loosely nailed on. Every time it
stormed all the pans and buckets in the establishment had to be
set down to receive the numerous little streams which came trickling
in from every crack and knothole. We received from the citizens
of the community every kindness that the warmest hospitality
could dictate and no effort was spared to render us as comfortable
as their own limited means would admit. Many families were still
obliged to lodge in their wagons, which, being covered, served to
make bedrooms, of limited dimensions it is true, but yet very
comfortable. Many of these wagon boxes were large and when

THE NEW UTAH 47

taken off the wheels and set upon the ground, they made an ad-
ditional apartment or back building to the small cabin. In the
enclosure next to that occupied by our party a whole family of
children had no other shelter than one of these wagons, where they
slept all winter, literally out of doors/'

The second quotation is a very chatty letter from Franklin
D. Richards, under date of 1855:

^'The California mail arrived yesterday. Our settlements are
prospering everywhere and the health of the people is good. Brother
Huntington has returned from his trip among the Navajos. He
found the ruins of an ancient city, some of the buildings in a good
state of preservation, four stories high, and the rocks laid in cement.
Last Tuesday evening. Chief Justice Kinney made an extensive
party at the Union Hall and invited the Presidency, the Twelve,
and many other principal citizens to participate. Col. Steptoe,
of the Army of the United States, and his officers were present.
The hall was crowded. Judge Kinney, who, by the way, is a
Presbyterian, danced for the first time in his life. He furnished
the whole party with a splendid supper. The great word
''UNION'' was formed on the side of the wall with cedar
boughs. The company was composed of ecclesiastical, judicial
and military officials to the number of two hundred fifty. The
members of the Legislature will give a party in the Social Hall on
Monday night. It will be a splendid affair. Eleven officers of
the United States Army, as well as the United States Territorial
Officers, are invited to be present. The New Council House is
enclosed and makes a splendid appearance. The Music Hall in
Provo is finished and the first party assembled there at Christmas."

THE NEW UTAH

The advent of the railroad and the telegraph wrought
a great change in Utah. Since that time the picturesque
pony express rider has taken to less exciting pursuits. The
great freight wagons are now seen only in back yards or on

48 CHIEF EPISODES IN THE HISTORY OF UTAH

remote mountain roads. The old thoroughbrace stage has
disappeared and its successor, the light covered wagon,
carries passengers and mail only where the railroads do not
run. The citizen of Salt Lake now hears the news of the
world almost as soon as the resident of New York. No

A VIEW IN MODERN SALT LAKE

longer are we content to buy our frocks and hats annually or
biennially. The latest fashions appear in Salt Lake as
regularly and almost as early as in New York. Everything
has changed save the unchanging climate. The sun shines
as constantly as ever; the wind blows as gently as before;
the cool, light air which we breathe is as delightful and
invigorating as it was to the Pioneers. But the valleys have
become gardens, and even the deserts are changing to fruitful

THE NEW UTAH

49

farms, for immense reservoirs and canals have been built
in recent years and millions of acres are watered now.
Even the mountains are changed, for they have been pierced
with railroad and irrigation tunnels; their canyons now

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CATHOLIC CATHEDRAL, SALT LAKE CITY

50 CHIEF EPISODES IN THE HISTORY OF UTAH

carry well-graded roads and picturesque summer resorts;
their sides have been torn open to furnish limestone for the
smelters and cement factories, sandstone and granite for
building, or ingress to the wealth of gold, silver, lead, copper,

SALT DESERT WEST OF GREAT SALT LAKE
Western Pacific Railroad

iron and coal that has so long been locked up in their rocky
depths.

Most remarkable of all is the change that has come in
the character of the population. The railroad brought in
the Gentile — ^the hustling business man from the East.
He was not content to sit down quietly on a little irrigated
farm and grow old tranquilly in the simple life of the farmer.
He opened up the mountain sides and exposed the treasures
hidden in the rocks. He built railroads into the remote
parts of the mountains to haul out the ore from the mines.

THE NEW UTAH 61

He built smelters and huge business blocks. He turned
real estate boomer and advertised the resources of Utah
far and wide. Through him, everyone, no matter what his
race or religion, was urged to come to Utah. Before the
coming of the railroad the population of Utah was almost
exclusively Mormon. Since the railroads came, people
of every faith have come and all have added strength. The
religious rancor that once prevailed has largely disappeared
and now we have a various but harmonious population work-
ing energetically to build up our state.

See how far we have come in so short a time. The white
man settled here in 1847. Since that time, the desert has
been reclaimed; cities have spring up along the trail of the
wrapper; schoolhouses, theatres, libraries and churches now
stand where the Indian wigwam once stood; mills and fac-
tories are planted along the streams where the beavers once
made their dams. We are going farther — much farther; and
the children who now read this book will soon be the men and
women upon whom will rest the responsibility of carrying
forward the good work so well begun. May God bless them
and help them to be as brave and earnest as the Pioneers.

I