THE CRUSADE OPENS, 1883-1885.
Exemplary Deacons.--Adam-ondi-Ahman.--Visit to Colorado.--The
Patriarchal Order of Marriage.--Andrew Burt.--Farm Life.--The Crusade
Opens.--The Family Celebration of His Birthday.--Call of Jno. W.
Taylor.--Call of Wm. B. Preston.--Land Troubles in Arizona.--Dedication
of the Logan Temple.--A Visit to Snake River Country, Idaho.--Growth
of Children After the Resurrection.--Call of John Morgan.--In
Exile.--Conference at Fish Lake.
On the 2nd of January, 1883, President Woodruff and Joseph F. Smith
spoke at the funeral of Captain William H. Hooper. He had occupied
a prominent place in the history of Utah. Besides representing the
people in Congress he was one of a small number of strong financiers,
who had much to do with the material development of the Territory. On
the 20th of the same month he makes mention of the appointment of L.
W. Shurtliff, bishop of Plain City, to succeed David H. Peery as the
president of the Weber Stake of Zion, at the same time Elders Chas. F.
Middleton, and N. C. Flygare were chosen as counselors.
On the 27th of the same month Elder Woodruff attended a Stake Quarterly
Conference at Nephi where George Teasdale had been called to preside.
A circumstance took place on Saturday at that conference which was
exceptionally gratifying to Elder Woodruff and he desires that it have
a place in his journal and history. He said, "As the meeting-house was
not large enough to hold all the people, some fifteen deacons gave up
their seats. Leaving the meeting-house they obtained axes and went
directly to President Teasdale's home where they cut up several cords
of wood. They then went to the homes of some half dozen widows in the
place where they cut up the wood they found there. They also cut up the
wood at the home of one of the deacons who had met with an accident
so that he was unable to cut his own wood. They continued in this
employment throughout the day. When Brother Teasdale arrived home, to
his surprise he found all his wood pile missing, but was much gratified
to find it all cut up and in his wood shed. God bless such deacons."
{545} During the early months of 1883 a number of prominent men
throughout the Church died. It was always a gratification to Elder
Woodruff to record his testimony to the character of men who died
devoted to the Church, true to their covenants and faithful to the
last. He makes special mention of the death of John Van Cott, Bishop
William Bringhurst of Springville, Harrison Burgess, Bishop L. E.
Harrington, and David Evans. The latter two, however, died about the
last of June.
On the 22nd of February Elder Woodruff was present at the dedication
of the Gardo House. The prayer was offered by Franklin D. Richards.
This residence had been in process of construction for some time and
its use was delayed in consequence of litigations begun by the heirs of
President Young against his executors. President Taylor was therefore
its first occupant. That he himself might be in position to ward off
the persecutions of himself as head of the Church, he left his families
in the homes he had built for them and made his sister matron of the
new official residence. His care, however, proved unavailing since
persecution was aimed specially at him.
During their lifelong experiences in the Church, President A. O. Smoot
of Provo, and Elder Woodruff were devoted friends. Their associations
had been intimate, and in the trying times of early Church history
their relations were the most cordial and brotherly. The home of
President Smoot in Provo always gave the fullest hospitality to Elder
Woodruff on his visits to that town. On the 12th of May he records the
circumstance that President Smoot's wife began immediately to regain
her speech, after it had been lost through paralysis, by the special
administration of Elder Woodruff and others. At that time his old
friend related a peculiar circumstance of history that occurred at
Adam-ondi-Ahman. President Smoot said that he and Alanson Ripley, while
surveying at that town, which was about 22 miles from Jackson County,
Missouri, came across a stone wall in the midst of a dense forest of
underbrush. The wall was 30 feet long, 3 feet thick, and 4 feet high.
It was laid in mortar or cement. When Joseph Smith visited the place
and examined the wall he said it was the remains of an altar built by
Father Adam and upon which he offered sacrifices after he was driven
from the Garden of Eden. He said that the Garden of Eden was located
{546} in Jackson County, Missouri. The whole town of Adam-ondi-Ahman
was in the midst of a thick and heavy forest of timber and the place
was named in honor of Adam's altar. The Prophet explained that it was
upon this altar where Adam blessed his sons and his posterity, prior to
his death.
On the 5th of June Apostle Woodruff with President Smith, Brigham
Young, and President John Morgan, paid a visit to the Saints in San
Louis Valley, Colorado. The Saints there were emigrants largely from
the Southern States. It was during this visit that Silas S. Smith was
sustained as stake president. While traveling on the Denver and Rio
Grande Railroad, Elder Woodruff felt and expressed his admiration for
the beauty of the scenery. Whenever he contemplated the laws of God or
his Creator's marvelous works it intensified his religious devotion and
his sense of gratitude. It was to him also a source of satisfaction
that much of the work in the construction of the railroad over which he
passed was the work of his brethren.
On his return to Salt Lake City the next important circumstance he
mentions was the threatened destruction of the great Tabernacle by
a spark of fire which had been thrown by an explosion from the old
wagon yard just across the road south of the Temple block. On the
21st of June this year the old Council House and Savages Art Callery
were burned to the ground. This threatened destruction of the great
Tabernacle led to the removal of its old shingled roof and the
substitution therefor of an iron one.
Soon after this we find him at a conference in Nephi. As plural
marriage was then attacked from all sides, it received special
attention from the leaders of the Church who maintained the importance
as well as the divinity of the institution. In his discourse at Nephi
he quoted himself as having made the following remarks, "The law of the
Patriarchal Order of marriage belongs to this dispensation, and after
it was revealed to the Prophet Joseph, he was commanded to receive it.
If he and the people had rejected it, the Church and Kingdom of God
would have advanced no further and God would have taken it from them
and given it to another people. It has been said that the Patriarchal
Order of marriage has caused more sorrow to the daughters of Eve than
any other principle ever revealed from Heaven to men, but this {547} is
not true. No divine principle brings trouble to those who faithfully
obey it. If they who are in it have troubles it is not the fault of the
principle but because of weakness and of the false traditions which
surround them. The Lord never gave a law to the children of men which
will give to them exaltation and glory except through the observance
of that law. The Lord's people who abide that law are entitled to
His protection by the oath and covenant which He has made with them.
From the day that the apostles and elders published that law to the
world with the determination to maintain it, the Lord has fought their
battles."
The 24th of that year was celebrated in the Tabernacle with great
enthusiasm. Ten thousand people were present. On the anniversary of
that day Wilford Woodruff was always reminiscent. As time went on,
the earlier impressions of his mind were confirmed in the fulfillment
of God's promises which year after year were to his mind more plainly
fulfilled. He felt that the observance of that day was a duty which the
people owed to their God because of the care He had manifested over
them and the wonderful manner in which He had made the desert blossom
like the rose.
In his journal of August 27th he mentioned regretfully the death of
Andrew Burt who had been killed on the 25th by a mulatto. At Bishop
Burt's funeral there were about nine thousand people, and it is said
that before the exercises something like fifteen thousand viewed
the remains. Captain Burt's splendid integrity, his simple life and
unassuming demeanor had won for him a respect quite universal. He was
bishop of the 21st ward.
Wilford Woodruff's love for men whose friendship was tried and true
and whose devotion to the things of God was above question, was again
verified. It made no difference to him what their standing in life was,
he saw above the honors of men that which he esteemed true greatness,
such greatness as he sincerely believed God recognized.
In reading his journal one learns to esteem more highly the practice
of manual labor. He exalted work by the interest he took in the
workmanship of his own hands. If he ever felt the temptation to leave
his ministry for any length of time it was the temptation which came to
him in his love of manual labor. {548} All through his journal he was
telling about the things that he did on his farm. He wrote about his
horses, his cows, his orchards, his crops, he spoke of them in detail,
they all meant much to him. One is constantly reminded in reading his
journal of the life and doctrines of Tolstoi, the great Russian author,
whose simple life and labors upon his farm with the Russian peasants
have won the admiration of millions of admirers.
As the year 1883 was drawing to a close the times became more trying.
The hatred of the enemy was greatly intensified. The brethren felt
the impending storm coming upon them, there was often a spirit of
gloom which it was not easy to cast aside. Elder Woodruff's journal
of October 12th that year contained an account of a meeting of the
Presidency and Twelve, a meeting of fasting and prayer that the
troubles which were coming upon them might be diverted if it were the
will of God, and if they were not to be diverted that they might have
the strength to bear them and the wisdom and patience and spirit to do
the will of the Father. To all these unhappy forebodings was added the
sorrow that comes from separation of old friends. On the 19th of that
month Bishop Edward Hunter died, and on the 17th of the month following
he was joined by Charles C. Rich.
During the year 1883 he traveled, according to the summary which he
made in his journal, over six thousand miles, held 213 meetings and
preached 144 discourses.
The year 1884 was the beginning in the Church of a great crusade.
It was a land-mark in history. What began that year is likely to be
told from generation to generation. The hardships that it brought
to the Church and the trials which the people underwent were themes
for household conversation throughout the entire Church. The Edmunds
law of 1882 had been put into effect so far as it related to the
imprisonment of the Saints. The enemy were at first occupied in its
political phases. As time went on it was seen that the disappointment
of the enemy in the political advantages to be derived from the law
became more apparent. The law was really a disappointment to them. The
Utah commission which it established was filled by appointees from the
East and those who were grasping for political power in the Territory
found their hopes unrealized. This disappointment led to a spirit of
intensified anger and the criminal part of the law began to {549}
receive its enforcement in the most drastic, spiteful, and revengeful
manner. Everything possible was done to prepare the people for dark
days to come. The revelations of God were to the effect that men should
set their families in order.
Elder Woodruff on his birthday, March 1st, had a family gathering.
Of the 46 members of his family, 39 were present. This included his
daughters-in-law and grandchildren. As a token of respect on the part
of his family, an address to him was read by his little grandson, Elias
Smith Woodruff: "To our beloved Grandfather,--we greet you on this
your seventy-seventh birthday. We wish you many happy returns of the
day, for this and more we ever pray. We all shall strive to walk in
your footsteps and listen to your counsel as you are a man of God. We
likewise hope to be like you by the help of our Heavenly Father. You
have done a vast amount of good, both for the living and the dead. Your
days have been many and many call you blessed. You have been in the
hands of God, the savior of thousands. Through the blessings of the
Lord your life has been preserved in many dangers through which you
have been called to pass. You have accomplished a great work and we
all with one voice say: 'Peace and blessings be with you to the end of
your days.' Please accept this tribute of love and respect. From your
little grandson. Written for him by Julia Woodruff." The family little
imagined at that time that President Woodruff would continue with them
in life yet fourteen years.
The 6th of March he became very much interested in the visit to Salt
Lake City of the great singer, Adelina Patti. Her world-renown fame
made her a person of great interest. She in turn recognized the
important stand occupied by the leaders of the Church, and invited
President Taylor and Elder Woodruff to visit her private car which
had cost something like sixty thousand dollars. Its conveniences and
beautiful apartments greatly interested Elder Woodruff whose powers to
observe were always strong.
As the year went on reports of the activity of the enemy and the
intense anti-Mormon hatred came to the Presidency of the Church. Miles
Romney brought word from St. Johns, Arizona, of the opposition there
from both the Mexicans and the whites. The April conference witnessed
the call of John W. Taylor to fill {550} the vacancy occasioned by the
death of Charles C. Rich. William B. Preston was made the presiding
bishop of the Church. That same month word also came from Arizona
of the attempt to rob the people there of their lands by means of a
purchase of railroad land which the Saints had occupied and cultivated
long before the railroad was built and before any grant had been
received by the railroad. Presidents Taylor and Cannon were absent at
the time, but a telegram signed by President Woodruff and others was
sent to General Williamson, Washington, D. C., the general agent of
the railroad lands, asking him not to sell the land in question before
receiving a letter from them. The method here referred to of robbing
the Saints was due to the fact that the enemy was taking advantage
of special information of which the Saints were ignorant. The lands
granted to the railroad in that part of Arizona were of little value
except as they had been made valuable by the labor of the Latter-day
Saints. It was a specie of robbery, but those who engaged in it
thought, no doubt, that their unscrupulous methods would be condoned by
exciting prejudice against the Saints.
The next circumstance of importance was the dedication of the Logan
Temple, May 17th, 18th, and 19th. The services were attended by
thousands of people and were repeated in order to accommodate all who
desired the privilege and were entitled to be present. People were
admitted to the services by tickets of recommendation given them by
their bishops. On that occasion a circumstance happened analogous to
that of Annanias and Sapphira who lied to the Lord and to Peter in the
days of the ancient apostles. As the hosts of people were climbing the
stairs to the assembly room of the Temple, President Taylor discerned
in the multitude one woman unworthy of admission. He did not know her
but said to President C. O. Card, "Turn that woman back." "Why?" asked
President Card, "She has come with a ticket of recommendation as well
as all the others." "I don't know why," replied President Taylor, "only
that the spirit of the Lord says, 'Turn that woman back.'" President
Card observed the instructions to him and upon special investigation
learned that the lady was altogether an improper person, and by
connivance with another she had procured the ticket for the price of
one dollar. In commenting upon this circumstance later, President
{551} Taylor said: "You may deceive the bishop, the president of the
stake, the apostles, the president of the Church, but you can't deceive
the Lord, Jesus Christ, nor the Holy Spirit, and sooner or later the
unworthy, the hypocrites and unrepenting transgressors will be found
out and separated from the assembly of the righteous." At that time M.
W. Merrill was chosen by revelation to preside over the Logan Temple, a
place he held up to the time of his death in February, 1906. The first
baptisms were performed there by Elder David H. Cannon of St. George,
and the first recipients of them were Franklin D. Richards, and Rachael
Grant.
In his journal relating to that occasion, Elder Woodruff wrote: "While
attending the dedication of this Temple my mind was carried back to the
many hours of prayer I had passed in my early manhood days. I prayed
that I might see the Church of Christ established on the earth and that
I might see a people raised up who would receive the ancient gospel
and contend for the faith once delivered to the Saints. The Lord then
promised me that I should live to see that day, to find the people of
God and have a name and place within His House, a name that should not
be cut off. To-day I rejoice in the fulfillment of that promise, I
rejoice in the opportunity of assisting in the dedication of another
Temple to His most Holy Name, to God and the Lamb. Praises be to His
name for ever more."
On the 29th, in company with Heber J. Grant, he left on an extended
tour of the settlements in the Snake River and Teton Valleys. In those
days that part of Idaho was in process of settlement by the Saints,
under the leadership of Thomas E. Ricks, who met Elders Woodruff and
Grant and conveyed them by team from Market Lake to Rexburg. When the
brethren on that occasion visited those parts not much had yet been
done in bringing that district of country under cultivation. In 1884
there was but one stake of the Church extending from Paradise in Cache
Valley on the south, to the Montana line on the north. To-day there
are ten stakes, six of which are along the Snake River Valley; namely,
Pocatello, Blackfoot, Bingham, Rigby, Fremont, and Yellow Stone. To-day
there are also in that region of country three large factories in
operation.
Congress adjourned that year without passing special bills {552} that
were inimicable to the Latter-day Saints. The anti-Mormons of Utah were
like hungry wolves clamoring for prey. They wanted all the offices and
were constantly importuning Congress to disfranchise in a body the
Latter-day Saints. When congress therefore adjourned without further
legislation Wilford Woodruff exclaims in his journal, "Thank the Lord
for another breathing spell."
Later he attended the Sevier Stake Quarterly Conference held at Fish
Lake. Hundreds of teams had conveyed the people to that place. While
administering Sacrament there he said it was the first time it had
taken place since the ancient Nephites had had a similar feast in those
parts. He manifested on this and other occasions a special interest
in the material welfare of the people. He examined their farms and
orchards, visited their canals, made a critical examination of their
water dams and head gates, and it may perhaps be said of him as
truthfully as of any man that ever lived, that he subordinated his own
personal interests to the general interest of the Church.
Evil days were soon to fall upon the Church. The failure of Congress
that year to pass anti-Mormon legislation intensified the rage of
the anti-Mormons. A campaign of slander and falsehood was taken up
by the anti-Mormon press of Salt Lake City, and press dispatches to
embitter the minds of the people in the East were sent; and in making
this campaign it was well understood by those who engineered it that
Congressmen might be made to fear their constituency and pass laws
their own judgment condemned.
The _Tribune_ published and sent out an alleged "Red Hot Address."
It purported to be an inflammatory address by Bishop West of Juab.
The purport of the address was the recommended assassination of the
Governor of Utah. There was no meeting held in Juab on the occasion
referred to, there was no Bishop West, and of course no such address.
The lie, however, inflamed the public mind abroad; and to those who
love a lie and darkness rather than light, it had the desired effect.
On the 10th of August following in Lewis County, Tennessee, Elders
Berry and Gibbs, and two members of the local Church their names being
James Riley Hudson, and Martin Condor, were shot and killed by a mob as
they were about to begin {553} their Sabbath services. Mrs. Condor, the
mother of the murdered boys, was also shot but not killed.
The Church was making history during those days and special care was
taken to give an exact record of current events. Hubert H. Bancroft
was publishing his history of the Pacific Coast and included Utah
among his volumes. Elder Woodruff opened to him the records of Church
history that he might give both sides of the question and draw fair and
impartial conclusions.
September 3rd he visited Provo where he attended the funeral of
Margarette T. Smoot. On that occasion he gave it as his opinion that
children would grow and develop after the resurrection and obtain all
the blessings of adult persons. The visit to Provo was followed by
the October conference, which that year was chiefly noted by the call
of John Morgan to be one of the presiding seventies. Elder Morgan had
been a missionary in the South for twelve years, and for ten years
the distinguished president of the Saints in the South. Elder Morgan
was a man of strong character, a conspicuous preacher, and a fearless
advocate. He was ordained to his new calling on October 7th, 1884.
The last part of the year 1884 found the storm of persecution growing
in intensity. Men and women to escape prison went into exile. Men and
women were pursued by a spirit of vindictiveness and hatred perhaps
never known in a civilized age. Stories of the Mountain Meadow
Massacre, the Bishop West address, and other malicious inventions had
done their work. Public opinion in the East had been so aroused as to
justify any sort of cruelty that the anti-Mormons in Utah might inflict
upon the Saints. All efforts to run down falsehoods by the circulation
of truth seemed a hopeless task. Elder Woodruff also found it necessary
to go into exile and he said: "I am a wanderer from home because of
my religion. It is not the first time I have been a wanderer in the
wilderness for the gospel's sake." However, he appeared in public at
special occasions for a short season.
On the first of January, 1885, he took part in the dedication of the
Brigham Young College, at Logan, but on the 14th he found it necessary
to go again into exile with all the Presidency and most of the Twelve
Apostles. Stake presidents, bishops of wards, and other leading
men were rapidly filling up prisons or {554} concealing themselves
among friends. It was not a movement to suppress immorality. Men
were not harangued and imprisoned because of lascivious cohabitation
as it obtains throughout the Christian world, but because men had
accepted from the Lord a principle which would, if universally carried
out, give to every woman in the world a husband and a home, the
opportunity of honored wifehood and motherhood, conditions desired by
every right-feeling and sound-minded woman. Under these persecutions
President Woodruff was among the number sought for. After a few days
of seclusion in his own home and neighborhood he boarded a south bound
train for southern Utah. At Nephi he was joined by George Teasdale,
and together they made their way by private conveyance and without
publicity to Saint George where they labored for some time in the
Temple. He also made a trip down the Virgin River to the Muddy country.
During his absence he read Josephus and Cassell's History of England.
On one occasion during those times we find him making calculations
from history of what the civil war had cost his country in the loss of
human lives, and the expenditure of money. That war he looked upon as
a judgment of God upon the country because of the wrong doings of the
people. "This shows," he wrote, "in a measure, what it costs a nation
to shed the blood of the prophets, apostles, and the Lord's anointed."
He sincerely believed that before very many years the judgments of God
would follow the persecutions which he was then undergoing.
In July he visited the stakes of the southern part of the Territory,
and was at a conference October 18th, and 19th, at Fish Lake.
Conference, he wrote, was attended by 1,136 persons. There were 187
vehicles, and 517 animals. While there, he with others, sounded the
depths of the lake which measured all the way from three feet near the
shore to 168 1/2 feet in the deepest places. He thought the lake was
the largest depository of trout in the mountain valleys. It is located
about 9,000 feet above the sea level. After going as far north as Manti
he returned again to St. George.
In his journal he makes special mention of an effort on the part of
the federal officers to create a disturbance on the 4th of July,
because certain persons manifested their sorrow for departed liberty
by placing the flag at half-mast on certain buildings {555} owned
chiefly by Mormons. At the same time threats were made that if the flag
were placed at half-mast on the 24th, war would be waged against the
Mormons with the utmost bitterness. The flag, however, on that date was
placed at half-mast by order of the President of the U. S. in honor
of General Grant who died July 23rd. There was no likelihood that any
of the leaders would encourage any one to place the flag at half-mast
upon the 24th, but the threat of the anti-Mormons was, in the end, all
a challenge that brought to the enemy chagrin because of the peculiar
circumstance.
As a rule nearly all who were indicted under the law went to prison
rather than promise the abandonment of their wives and children.
Occasionally a man would enter court and make the required promise
to escape punishment. As a rule the practices of such men were not
in harmony with the requirements of the gospel and those times gave
them an opportunity to demonstrate their unworthiness rather than a
lack of courage. Later, such men undertook to draw comfort from the
circumstance that the leaders counseled men under indictment to give
the demanded promise. They failed, however, to make the distinction
between an order for retreat coming from those at the head and the act
of desertion while in the ranks.
Indictments in those days were followed as a matter of the course by
convictions. Juries were made to order. Judges considered themselves
missionaries and the greater their trespass on justice the more they
were honored by the anti-Mormon element. Their vindictiveness became an
object of honor, and the leaders in the crusade walked the streets of
Salt Lake City with feelings of special pride. They were pointed out to
the curious and were the objects of adulation of those whose religious
hatreds were most intense. Leaders of the persecution were making a
record over which they were not only proud but boastful, although
in the beginning the feelings of antagonism between the persecutors
and the persecuted were most intense. As time went on, feelings of
resignation sprang up in the hearts of the Latter-day Saints who more
and more became disposed to leave in the hands of God the future of
those who despitefully used them. In passing, it may here be remarked
that the persecutors of the Latter-day Saints will, in days to come, be
left to the Latter-day {556} Saints for the estimation in which they
will be held by those to whom their lives will be of no consequence;
in other words, those whom they persecuted will in turn become their
judges whose verdicts will go down to history.
Elder Woodruff, after returning to the south, took an active part in
the daily lives of the people. In Pine Valley he assisted Brother
Thompson in repairing his grist mill. He dressed the Burr stones, since
by trade he was a miller. However, it had been fifty-five years since
he had done such work and in some respects such labor was restful to
him and would have been healthful had it not been for the constant
strain which those evil days placed him under.
In October he received word that his wife Phoebe was in poor health and
he therefore hastened home to Salt Lake City where he arrived on the
5th of November. He remained, however, in seclusion in his home and
neighborhood. On the 10th of November she died. He was greatly affected
by her death and painfully humiliated by the circumstance under which
her funeral was held. He stood concealed in the Historian's Office
as he watched the funeral procession pass by on its way to the city
of the dead. "I am," said he, "passing through a strange chapter in
the history of my life. Persecution is raging against the Latter-day
Saints. I hope I may prove true and faithful to the end and that I may
join her in the celestial Kingdom of God and have part in the first
resurrection."
{557}