THE YEARS 1864-65.
Some Enjoyments.--He Visits a Condemned Man in Prison.--Troubles Made
by Gibson on Hawaiian Islands.--Lorenzo Snow's Escape from Watery
Grave.--Visit to Bear Lake Valley.--Remark of President Young in
Logan.--Ordination to Apostleship of Charles C. Rich, Lorenzo Snow,
Erastus Snow, and Franklin D. Richards.--Hot Springs at Midway.--Second
Inauguration of President Lincoln.--Treaty with Indians.--Colfax Visits
Utah.--Jane Blackhurst.
The journal of Wilford Woodruff for the year 1864 opens with the
following statement: "I have lived to see fifty-six new years, and I
have kept a daily journal of my life for the last thirty-five years. In
some measure it is also a life of others. I have written many sermons
and teachings of the Prophets Joseph Smith and Brigham Young, and
sermons of apostles and elders of the Church. I have watched the signs
of the times for many years and noted the fulfillment of prophecy." The
new year, as usual, awakened within him a prophetic spirit. The future
was of great importance in his expectations of the fulfillment of God's
purposes. The fulfillment of prophecy was so certain to his mind that
he dwelt upon it as if he were discussing events of the past.
He celebrated his New Year's day by visiting his wives and children at
their homes and by taking them for a sleigh ride. In those early days
the snow lay longer upon the ground than in recent years. The jingle of
the sleigh bell made the hearts of the people glad.
Elder Woodruff was a many-sided man. While he was possessed of the
acutest spiritual nature, he assumed temporal responsibilities with
peculiar satisfaction, and loved to work on the farm. He was, perhaps,
the highest type of those requirements laid down by Alma and Amulek
relative to the spiritual and temporal responsibilities of a servant
of God. His writings show that he did not place the highest value upon
the man who was fitted for only one class of labor, as preaching or
professional work.
{434} Early in January he took up again his legislative work; and
when not occupied there, officiated in his ministerial calling. On
the 9th of the month he records the fact that he dedicated the new
meeting-house in Farmington.
If he was interested in the welfare of the Saints, he was no less
concerned about the condition of the sinner. He says that on the 11th
and 12th he paid visits to Jason Luce, who was in prison sentenced to
death for murder. Luce was one of the notorious gang in those days,
led by Hickman, a man who preyed upon his fellow-man and who was
guilty of some of the most atrocious crimes, which he undertook to lay
at the feet of the leaders. Elder Woodruff recorded his conversation
with Luce, who is quoted as saying that he had never killed any person
or had a hand in the death of any one except Rhodes and Burting. He
had killed them in self-defense. He said that William Hickman had
advised him to do many things that made his flesh crawl, but that
he had not followed Hickman's advice in these things. He felt that
Hickman had betrayed him and done him a great injury. Luce said that
Hickman had been his ruin and the ruin of others, and that in all
these things Hickman had carried his point by declaring that President
Young had given him counsel to do them. This statement Elder Woodruff
characterized in his journal as "a cursed lie."
"Luce asked me to pray with him that he might have strength to go to
his execution and pay the penalty of his crimes. I prayed with him
according to his request, and then bade him good-bye as did others who
were with him." There was no request in that prayer that Luce be taken
to the bosom of Jesus. There was no promise of a glorious exaltation
for him. He had committed a crime, he had to pay the penalty, and Elder
Woodruff left him to God's mercy as he felt merciful toward him.
The interest of Apostle Woodruff in Jason Luce arose in part from the
fact that he belonged to a family with whom Elder Woodruff had long
been acquainted and with whom he had labored; but Jason had fallen
into bad company and became one of a gang of thieves, and disregarding
counsel, went finally the way of the wicked.
From the drift of affairs at home, the attention of the authorities
{435} was called to the condition of the Church in foreign lands,
especially on the Hawaiian Islands. There, Walter M. Gibson, a
missionary, had organized a church of his own and for some time had
wielded a wonderful influence over the natives. Elders Ezra T. Benson,
Lorenzo Snow, and Joseph F. Smith were sent to the Islands to put in
order the Church there and to restore the natives to their proper
relation with the authorities in Salt Lake City. Gibson was promptly
excommunicated and went the way of all adventurers and deceivers whose
motives are the accumulation of wealth and the honors of men. It was on
this visit to the Islands that Elder Lorenzo Snow was actually drowned.
The boat in which he attempted to land was capsized. President Snow was
rescued by a native, but to all appearances was dead. It was some time
before he showed any signs of life.
On the 4th of April following, Elder Woodruff records the fact that he
was chosen a member of the grand jury. The work was somewhat new to
him, but he soon adjusted himself to his duties and gave it his special
attention. From the grand jury room he went to the Historian's Office,
then to his conferences, and mingled religious and secular duties in
such a manner as to show the responsibility that he felt himself under
to do the very best he could in every calling of life.
On the 16th of the following May, he joined President Young's party
on a visit to the northern settlements, especially to those in Bear
Lake Valley, whither Charles C. Rich had gone to preside. When the
party arrived at Franklin, they had to cross the mountains. "We left
Franklin at six o'clock and traveled the first twenty miles in a severe
rain storm. The country was hilly and the road very crooked. On our
arrival at the summit, the animals were nearly exhausted. We found the
way wet and muddy. After proceeding about a mile we entered a mud hole
six miles long, the worst I ever saw in my life. I could not compare
it with anything better than by taking all the mud holes I ever saw in
my life and place them in a line. What made it worse than Illinois or
Indiana mud holes was that they were nothing but mud while this was
full of tree stumps and brush. Both the horses and mules struggled
fearfully, belly deep, in the mud to make headway. Occasionally a pair
of horses or mules would {436} fall and be buried all over except their
heads. Men would go and pry out the animals and pull the vehicles out
with ropes and then make another start. Some carriages were broken.
In this way we wallowed through the mud until eight o'clock in the
evening. We later continued our journey to Bear Lake and reached Paris
at 3 o'clock in the morning of the 20th of May. The distance was about
twenty miles."
Speaking of Bear Lake he says: "We found this to be a large valley.
The soil is good and the water is sufficient to irrigate it all and
there is abundant timber. It is a great stock range and the lake is
the finest in Utah. It is about thirty miles long and ten miles wide
through the middle. It is said that in many places a line two hundred
feet long fails to reach the bottom."
Elder Woodruff was a fisher, and of course tells the story of the trout
in that region: "Great numbers of trout ran in the streams from the
lake. They ranged some of them from ten to twelve pounds in size. The
boatmen sometimes killed them with clubs and sometimes caught them with
nets."
On the return home, he said: "An accident occurred which came near
costing Geo. A. Smith his life. A man by the name of Merrill put a
loaded rifle in the carriage. The gun rested on the seat by Brother
George A. While he was thus riding, the wheel struck a rock. Brother
Smith threw his body on the upper side of the carriage to balance
it, and at that instant the gun went off. The ball went through the
buffalo-robe by him, passed by his side and went through the wagon
behind him. It was a providential escape from death."
"On May the 24th we drove to Logan where President Young spoke on
the doctrine of the plurality of wives. He said that there were but
few elders in the Church that would receive the exaltation they were
looking for in that order. It would be given to many more women than
men. There are but few men that enter into that law that keep it."
On date of June 5th Elder Woodruff makes record in his journal of the
drowning of Matthias Cowley. Elder Cowley was a nephew by marriage to
Apostle Woodruff, and had come from the Isle of Man to Nauvoo when
thirteen years of age. Later {437} he emigrated with his parents to
Salt Lake Valley. Elder Woodruff secured a number of men and a boat and
went in search of the body, which, however, was not recovered until a
week later.
Early in July Elder Woodruff accompanied President Young on a trip to
Provo, where they preached under the bowery to a congregation of some
three thousand persons. While there, Elder Woodruff records that a
messenger came from Salt Lake stating that the Governor had placed a
provost guard in the Church storehouse opposite the Temple Block. The
Governor intended to put the city under martial law. A guard of one
hundred men accompanied the President and party home. They found his
home guarded by two hundred and fifty men.
This annoyance created a good deal of agitation among the Saints, and
Elder Woodruff says that on the 12th of July he spent most of the day
getting singers to the petition to remove the soldiers to the outside
of the inhabited portions of the city. The leaders had learned during
their early experience that one of the means that the enemy had used
to drive out the Saints was to create some sort of a conflict by
aggravating the leaders. It was hoped that some kind of retaliation
would be resorted to that would bring them into conflict with the civil
authorities. It was so easy to style such a conflict a rebellion. The
next step, of course, would be martial law. The Saints and leaders,
however, were on their guard constantly, and took every precaution to
keep down disturbances.
It would not be possible in a biography of this character to follow
Elder Woodruff in his travels to the various counties throughout the
Church. Towns were multiplying rapidly. The Saints were coming into the
Valleys by the thousands. The pioneer work of extending the borders of
the Church was already beyond the personal supervision of the leaders.
On his return from one of these visits he said that he had budded four
hundred and nineteen peach trees in the old Fort block, where the
pioneers had early located. On this block Charles C. Rich, Lorenzo
Snow, Erastus Snow and Franklin D. Richards were ordained apostles, on
Feb. 12, 1849. The block is now owned by the city, and held as a park.
On the 18th of August a visit was made to Heber City. Elder {438}
Woodruff described the Hot Springs, located at Midway, and the peculiar
formation around them. He said that about twenty of them were filled
with water. In some instances the water was running over the top. Some
were about fifteen feet in depth, and some apparently bottomless. On
one they sank a weight one hundred and twenty-five feet and found no
bottom. He spoke of the rattle-snake den, and the fact that between
four and five hundred rattle-snakes had been killed in a single day. In
the spring they appear on the outside and form into a bunch that would
almost fill a bushel. They tie themselves together in knots with their
heads sticking out in all directions for defense. The country around
the craters is apparently hollow, as indicated by the sounds caused by
the rumbling of wheels.
Soon after their return from Heber City, September the 1st, a tour of
the southern part of the Territory was made, and extended as far as St.
George and Santa Clara. These visits fired the hearts of the Saints and
gave rise to an ambition to make the desert blossom as the rose. At
Fillmore Elder Woodruff made a careful note of the splendid condition
of the apple orchards. He also stated they held a party there that
evening in the stake house, but President Young broke it up because of
the confusion and disorder in the house.
On their return from the south, Elder Woodruff made record of the
following: "While on the road from Washington to Harrisburg, we stopped
on the edge of a high precipice which presents very interesting scenery
of the valley below. While standing there, Brother Eddings wished me
to help him lift up a flat stone that he wanted to throw off from the
top to the depth below. As I took hold of it. I caught a scorpion
between my fingers. The sting gave a shock to my whole system. It was
a small scorpion and I mashed it to pieces in lifting the stone. This
sting alarmed me somewhat, as the sting of the scorpion is considered
very dangerous and some have even lost their lives by it. I soon got
some tobacco and bound it on my finger. This seemed to take the poison
out, and I received no material injury from the bite." Elder Woodruff,
however, felt the blessings of the Lord in his escape from poison and
found a parallel in the life of Paul, who, while {439} on the island of
Malta, shook from his hand a scorpion whose bite did him no harm.
The October Conference followed their return. It was largely attended
and characterized by the interest the people had in those semi-annual
gatherings. It is remarkable that so many came together when we note
the difficulties under which Salt Lake City was reached in those days.
Immediately after the conference, on October 10th, the survivors of
Zion's Camp held a meeting. It was the first gathering of that body
since their expedition to Missouri. Elder Woodruff recorded the fact
that there were over fifty of the survivors out of the two hundred
and five that belonged originally to Zion's Camp. In the evening they
enjoyed themselves in a dancing party in the Social Hall. "It was the
most interesting party I had ever attended." Bishop Hunter and his
counselors provided for those veterans a good dinner and supper, a
precedent since observed by President Joseph F. Smith. At this date,
1909, there remains but one survivor of Zion's Camp,--Nathan Tanner.
The harvest season was practically closed, yet the molasses mill was
an important adjunct to the farm. Sugar was scarce and the price high.
Molasses was a necessity, and one of the common articles of diet of
the people. Elder Woodruff had erected a molasses mill, which was kept
running not only by the cane that he raised on his own farm, but by the
patronage of his neighbors. Almost every fall and winter, therefore,
he had large quantities of molasses to sell. Bread, molasses, fruit,
milk, and butter were the products of his own farm, and were the
chief supply of his table. He raised his own mutton and beef, and his
family made clothing from the wool of his sheep. He took a special
pride in the fact that he lived by the labors of his own hands and was
self-sustaining.
Elder Woodruff's journal of November 9th, that year, contained
mentioned of his visit to Kays Ward, where he met a Sister Mary
Phillips, the oldest person in Utah. In three weeks she would reach
her ninety-first year. She had been baptized by Elder Woodruff in
Herefordshire in 1840.
On his return home he encountered one of the old-time east winds which
swept down through the canyon and mountains east {440} of Farmington.
It was so severe that the party had great difficulty in keeping their
carriages from being upset. That night Elder Woodruff enjoyed the
hospitality of Ezra Clark, an old-time bosom friend of Elder Woodruff.
Here the roof of the house of Ezra Clark was blown off, also that of
the Bountiful meeting-house. Hay stacks were torn down and scattered
over the country. These winds in early days were so frequent and severe
as to give the people in Farmington and vicinity grave apprehension.
They were so destructive and so dreaded that President Young rebuked
them in the name of the Lord and they immediately became less frequent.
In late years these winds have occurred in some of their old-time
severity.
The year 1865 bore witness of stirring events that had much to do in
shaping the sentiments of the Latter-day Saints in political matters.
Petty annoyances and officiousness on the part of federal officers gave
the Saints cause for complaint. Between religious and civil opinions
there had always existed, and perhaps will always exist, more or less
jealousy over the question of influence. In those days there was no
real collision in the matter of authority. The influence of President
Young and leading men of the Church was so incomparably much greater
than that exercised by judges and governors that there would naturally
arise feelings of suspicion as well as of jealousy.
The Saints were anxious to avoid disputations and collisions, and
yet they felt at times resentful when subjected to what they felt
unnecessary indignities. They were loyal to the government, honored the
officers of the law in their place; but they were also religious. With
them, God had a part in the affairs of this nation, and they foresaw
a divine purpose in what was going on among the nations of the earth.
Their interpretation of events, even though they were loyal, were often
misunderstood and just as often wilfully misconstrued.
In February, 1865, Elder Woodruff records the purchase for the Church
of a large tract of land in Oahu on the Sandwich Islands. This purchase
was brought about through the instrumentality of Francis A. Hammond.
November, the preceding year, had witnessed the re-election of Abraham
Lincoln as President of the United States. On March {441} 4th he was
to be inaugurated. This gave the Saints an opportunity to meet the
officers and soldiers of the Fort in a friendly celebration. There was
fraternal good will and the celebration did much to mitigate suspicion
and illiberal feelings. At the conclusion of the celebration George
A. Smith arose, and waving the stars and stripes said: _"One country,
an undivided country, the old flag forever!"_ The toast awakened
enthusiasm, and it truthfully expressed the unanimous sentiment of the
Latter-day Saints.
At the close of the services, Elder Woodruff and several other leading
men repaired to the City Hall, where they took dinner with Colonel
George and staff, Colonel George having succeeded General Connor in
the command of Fort Douglas. Conditions in Utah now seemed improved.
The war was over, and peace was to be the watchword of the nation. Why
should the people of Utah not also have their share of that sacred boon?
The country, however, was aroused almost to a state of frenzy by the
assassination of President Lincoln. The Territory mourned with the
other territories and states of the Union. On April 16th Elder Woodruff
preached the funeral sermon in honor of the martyred President in the
Tabernacle at Salt Lake City. In the afternoon of that day Franklin D.
Richards and Geo. Q. Cannon also spoke upon the same subject. April
19th, however, they set apart as a day of general mourning throughout
the land, and in Salt Lake City thousands assembled in the Tabernacle
to take part in the services. They consisted of Mormons, Jews and
Gentiles, civil and military authorities. The audience was addressed by
Amasa Lyman and the Rev. Norman McLeod.
Between June 1st and 15th of that year, Elder Woodruff joined President
Young's company on a visit through the settlements as far south as
Payson. Near that town they visited the Indian camp, where they found
Colonel Irish, who was persuading the Indians to enter into a treaty
by which they might thereafter occupy a reservation in Uintah. Of that
event Elder Woodruff said: "President Young and company drove to the
Indian farm and held a meeting with the Indians. Colonel Irish, the
agent, had called upon President Young to assist him in making a treaty
which he could not bring about because of the opposition {442} of the
Indians to it. Mr. Irish made a speech and the Indian chiefs made
speeches. They did not want to sell their lands and go away. President
Young then made a talk to them, explained that it would be best for
them to sign the treaty, and the advantages that would come to them
from it. They finally said they would do as he said; but they wanted to
think it over until the next day. When they met again, the chiefs came
forward and signed the treaty, except one by the name of Sanpitch, who
claimed to be the main chief. He lay in his tent on his face for about
two days. He was on his dignity. The other chiefs paid no attention to
him. After all was over, Sanitch came forward and wanted his presents
and wanted to sign the treaty. However, he got some presents, but had
to come to Salt Lake City to sign the treaty. Colonel Johns of the
United States Army was present and Colonel Irish informed him that
he could do nothing with the Indians except through the influence of
President Young."
About this time Schuyler Colfax, Governor Bowles and others paid the
Territory a visit. "We spent about two hours with them and had a free,
social interview. They talked about a variety of subjects, among
the rest gold digging. President Young showed Mr. Colfax how much
better off those were who had stayed at home, cultivated the earth
and made improvements than those who had gone to dig gold. Mr. Colfax
thought that if we did not open the mines ourselves that others would.
President Young said that, 'if they open mines in this territory, it
will be against all the faith that I can exercise with my God; for the
people have spent twenty dollars for every one they have obtained from
the mines.'"
President Young felt that it was not wisdom to encourage the mining
industry at that time when so much depended upon the colonization of
the Territory, in the construction of canals, and in bringing the land
under cultivation. Mr. Colfax and party visited the Salt Lake Theater
and pronounced it, according to Elder Woodruff's journal, the best,
with the exception of two, west of New York City.
While Mr. Colfax and party were here, Gov. Doty died. Great respect was
shown throughout the Territory for the occasion. {443} The Latter-day
Saints, wishing to secure the appointment of some one who understood
conditions here, and who would not act in a spirit of antagonism
towards them, sent a petition to Washington, asking for the appointment
of Colonel Irish. Their petition, however, was not granted.
The October conference of that year was well attended. President Daniel
H. Wells had just returned from England, and gave an interesting
address to the Saints.
On December 22nd the President and Twelve gathered as usual at the home
of Sister Jane Blackhurst, whose devotion to her faith and humble,
God-fearing life endeared her to all with whom she came in contact.
Of her Elder Woodruff said: "In the history of the whole world I do
not know of a woman occupying a position like that of Sister Jane
Blackhurst. A woman once fed the Prophet Elisha in time of famine,
and the Lord increased her cruse of oil and measure of meal. One or
two women were last at the cross and earliest at the grave of Jesus.
Sister Blackhurst has made a feast for the Presidency and the Twelve,
annually, for the last fifteen years, although she is a poor, crippled
woman." He then proceeded to bless her in an inspired manner.
Elder Woodruff closed his journal for 1865 by recognizing the hand of
God in all that had befallen the people. In the midst of political
turmoils of those times, and the enmities that existed against the
Saints, he found reason to praise God, the giver of all good.
{444}