Dedication day.--Fourth of July.--Gratitude and thanksgiving.--More
than two thousand had suffered loss.--In six months
the Factory is rebuilt.--Great rejoicing.--Dedicatory
prayer.--Address.--Speeches.--Brigham City M. and M. Association.--A
raid.--Railroad contract.--How a village sprang up.--An
onslaught.--Confusion ensues.--The Grand Jury issues indictments.--Men
drove to jail in a herd.--Great excitement.--Superintendent
Dunn speaks.--John Merrill in custody.--Handcuffed.--Chained
in jail.--Telegrams from the United States President.--How the
Judge received them.--More about Merrill.--Left unguarded and
unacquitted.--About the mill.--Dishonesty of Jurors.--Financial loss.
On the fourth of July, 1878, just six months after the calamitous
conflagration, the Box Elder people, by their united efforts,
indomitable energy and enterprise, had erected another factory
building--48x80 feet, two stories high, and nearly fireproof and
more substantial and commodious than its predecessor. They also had
purchased and put in running order an improved set of machinery. Our
national day, the fourth of July, was chosen for the dedication, and
the entire day, from early dawn, was, by men, women and children,
devoted to gayety, mirth, congratulations and expressions of gratitude
and thankfulness to Him who overrules the destinies of nations, and
whose watchful care is ever extended to His people.
More than two thousand of those people were sufferers in the loss of
their factory, and on this day a feeling of recompense and remuneration
warmed and cheered the most desponding heart. It is utterly impossible
for any disinterested person to appreciate the satisfaction of the good
people of Brigham City and vicinity on this occasion. The reproduction
of one of the most remunerative and important branches, which
constituted their independence, was calculated to inspire every heart
with gratitude to the Giver of all good, for the marvelous success with
which He thus far had crowned their efforts in overcoming difficulties
which at first seemed insurmountable.
We shall not attempt a description of the general exercises of the
day--the mammoth procession, the huge floating flags and waving
banners, and the brilliant, profuse decorations; suffice it to say the
dedicatory services were performed in the factory building, which was
filled to overflowing. Lorenzo Snow, president of the association,
offered the dedicatory prayer, delivered the opening address, and was
followed by others, all interspersed with singing by the Brigham City
choir, and music by the bands. The assembly was dismissed by prayer.
So rapidly had the Brigham City Mercantile and Manufacturing
Association increased in wealth, influence and popularity, that
a strong feeling of envy, jealousy and avarice, the outgrowth of
political aims and financial cupidity in the hearts of Gentile
officials and unscrupulous apostates, broke out in one of the most
flagrant raids ever concocted.
After the heavy loss the association suffered by the burning of their
woolen factory, estimated at thirty thousand dollars in cash, being
in great need of funds to liquidate cash indebtedness, incurred in
rebuilding their factory, purchasing new machinery, etc., they took
a large contract on the Utah Northern Railroad, then in progress of
construction through Idaho, to furnish supplies of timber, ties,
shingles and lumber, to meet demands. It was a gigantic contract, and
they immediately shaped their plans to meet emergencies. They purchased
a saw mill and shingle mill in Marsh Valley, Idaho, and moved to that
place their steam saw mill from Box Elder County. They employed about
one hundred men in the various departments of labor, also a number of
women, who assisted as cooks.
The arrangements were so made with Mr. Dunn, the construction
superintendent of the railroad, that the furnishing contract might
be extended to an indefinite length, or as long as the furnishing
party wished; in view of this, it was requisite that the laborers
employed should be made comfortable as practicable, so as to continue
work during the winter months. Accordingly, log and frame houses were
erected--shanties, sheds, stables, stack-yards and corrals were built;
and the location presented the appearance of a village formed for
comfort, of no inconsiderable dimensions, and not entirely devoid of
taste.
There the association kept a small store, from which the employees
supplied their wants. In fact, the entire concern was so complete in
its organization, and so systematically conducted, that everything
moved like clockwork, honorably representative of the institution
by which it was inaugurated. Superintendent Dunn was highly pleased
with the promptitude with which his bills were filled and his calls
answered. He was furnished from twelve thousand to fifteen thousand
feet of lumber or timber per day, besides a large quantity of ties.
For several months this satisfactory order of things continued, much
to the advantage of the railroad as well as to the prospects of the
co-operative establishment, when, suddenly, without any premonition,
like a tremendous avalanche, a mobocratic raid, instituted by the grand
jury and sustained by an unprincipled judge, a Methodist minister,
Hollister by name, changed the scene, and an indescribable pell-mell
and confusion ensued.
In October, 1878, the grand jury, composed mostly of apostates from
the Church of Latter-day Saints, sat in Malad City, and conniving
against the interests of the co-operative efforts of the Saints, got
up indictments against the laborers at the mills for _unlawfully
cutting timber_. Fifty-three of the men were simultaneously arrested
and driven, like a herd of cattle, fifteen miles to Malad City, and the
mills were ordered to be shut down.
Then, instead of peace and thriving industry, all was consternation
and disorder among the workmen, and great excitement spread everywhere
abroad. The men who were not arrested were every moment apprehensive of
the marshal pouncing upon them; some concealed themselves in the woods,
some under hay stacks, while others made steps for their homes as fast
as possible. Thus the camp was broken up, the villagers scattered to
the four winds, and the business prospects closed.
Although these difficulties were settled, as will be shown hereafter,
it was not till winter had set in, and the people gone to their
homes, many having entered into other engagements, etc.; and thus the
anticipated resources were gone, but not without heavy losses.
In order to show the villainy of the instigators and conductors of that
fiendish raid, we will take one specimen, for instance: Elder John
Merrill, who had charge of one of the mills, and had not cut one tree,
was arrested by indictment of the grand jury, for cutting seventeen
thousand trees, and was sentenced to pay a fine of $13,800 and three
months' confinement in jail. The construction superintendent of
railroad said to Mr. Merrill: "_You shall not go to jail; I would bond
the railroad rather than you should go_." But all to no purpose; the
trial was a humbug--an immense crowd of witnesses were called, and no
one had seen Mr. Merrill cut a tree. After the sentence was pronounced,
he was placed in charge of the United States marshal, handcuffed,
chained to another prisoner and lodged in Malad jail.
The following telegrams speak for themselves:
From Oneida County, October 13TH, 1878.
_To Judge Smith, Brigham City_:
Merrill's fine, thirteen thousand eight hundred dollars--three months
imprisonment. Your son, eighteen hundred dollars and nine months
imprisonment. The judge refuses parties as bail having less than five
thousand dollars real estate. We cannot raise the bail here.
[Signed] Washington Dunn.
Oneida, Idaho, October 18, 1878.
_Judge Smith, Brigham City_:
Jay Gould says the U. S. President will remit fine and imprisonment.
[Signed] Washington Dunn.
Salt Lake, October 18, 1878.
_Judge Smith, Brigham City_:
Received the following last night: "I have arranged with the
Attorney-General to pay the value of timber taken for the U. N. R. R.,
and the fines and sentences will be remitted by the President of the U.
S. Jay Gould."
[Signed] Williams & Young.
New York, October 24, 1878.
_Judge Smith, Brigham City_:
The President has ordered the lumber men released and fines remitted.
[Signed] Joe Richardson.
Oneida, October 24TH, 1878.
Has Merrill been released? If not, where is he?
[Signed] Washington Dunn.
On receipt of the foregoing telegrams, the judge ignored the authority
of the President, saying that President Hayes had no jurisdiction in
the case--that it belonged to the Secretary of the Interior, Carl
Schurz; and finding himself in an awkward and embarrassing dilemma,
this policy judge, being destitute of sufficient noble manhood to
acknowledge and honor a defeat, instead of dismissing those cases
and discharging those under indictment, he affected to disregard
the telegrams and resorted to base subterfuges, conniving with his
mobocratic clan; and all of those indictments remained for years as so
many foul blots on the judicial docket. At length they were expunged by
order of the court.
On Sunday, four or five days after the receipt of the despatch to set
the prisoners free, the United States marshal took Elder Merrill from
Malad jail, and, pretending he was taking him to Boise in conformity to
the verdict of the judge, stopped in Corinne, sixty miles from Malad,
after dark, when, after Mr. Merrill stepped out of the carriage and
proposed to assist in taking care of the horses, the marshal gruffly
replied, "No, I'll see to them myself," and drove off, leaving his
prisoner standing alone, unguarded and unacquitted.
The mill, which the Brigham City Mercantile and Manufacturing
Association purchased in Marsh Valley, had been in operation there
twelve years before the purchase; and, after the raid, the foreman of
the jury bought it of the association at half price, and has kept it
running from that time, supplied from the same woodland, which proves
his egregious dishonesty as a juror.
It was understood, and those raiders must have been cognizant of the
fact, that the government not only granted the right of way, but also
the right of timber for building the railroad, and that the section
under controversy was included.
Irrespective of the anxieties, disappointments and embarrassments
resulting from that unhallowed onslaught, the financial loss which the
association suffered amounted to from six thousand to eight thousand
dollars.