AMONG THE MORMONS.
In my ride across the Territory of Utah amid its snow-capped mountains,
hot sulphur springs and its great Salt Lake, I met no hostile Indians,
but on the contrary many hospitable Mormons; in fact, my reception by
both Mormon and Gentile was invariably kind and generous. I saw
something of the social life of Utah as well as the wonderful country
through which I passed, and was favorably impressed with the material
development of the latter, as witnessed in its farms and mechanical
industries. The men I conversed with were fairly intelligent--some
exceptionally so; and hesitated not to explain and justify their
peculiar faith and domestic life. They are certainly neither monsters
nor murderers, but men possessing good manners and many of them refined
tastes. In short, I found much good human nature among this people as
well as social culture. Business intelligence and activity is a marked
feature in their intercourse with strangers.
In Utah agriculture is the chief occupation of the people. The long dry
summers and the clayey character of the soil insure defeat to the
farmer, unless he helps his crops by artificial means. Irrigation is
therefore universal, and the result--the finest crops to be found
anywhere in the West.
The Territory of Utah covers the region drained by the Great Salt Lake
and many miles more, both in length and breadth, but the Mormon
settlements extend one hundred miles further into Idaho on the north and
two hundred miles into Arizona on the south. These settlements are
mostly small, but there are some places of considerable importance, as,
for instance, Provo at the south and Ogden at the north.
On July 14, 1847, Brigham Young, a Mormon leader, and his followers
entered the valley of the Great Salt Lake. The lake itself is one of the
most remarkable bodies of water on the globe. It is seventy miles long
and forty-five miles broad, and stands 4,250 feet above the sea-level.
It bears a strong resemblance to the Dead Sea of Palestine, but, unlike
that sea, it abounds in animal life. When Young entered the valley Utah
belonged to Mexico, and the leader believed he could found whatever
character of institution should suit him and his people best. It has
been alleged that Brigham Young had "chains on men's souls." There is no
doubt that superstition and the machinery of the Mormon Church were in
some degree the secret of his irresistible power over his followers; but
back of the superstition and the marvellous church organization stood
the brain of a great and masterful man. His power, he knew, must rest
upon something material and tangible, and this something he reasonably
discerned to be the prosperity of the people themselves. He proved
himself to be an organizer of prosperity, and this was the real source
of his strength.
Mormonism is the religion of 250,000 of the world's inhabitants. The
Territory of Utah has a population of 160,000, and of these, probably,
110,000 are Mormons. Their doctrines may be explained in a few words:
They believe that both matter and spirit are eternal, and both are
possessed of intelligence and power to design.
The spiritual realm contains many gods, all of whom are traced back to
one Supreme Deity.
This Supreme Deity and all the gods resemble men and differ only in the
fact that they are immortal.
In form they are the same as men, having every organ and limb that
belongs to humanity. They have many wives, and are as numerous as the
sands upon the sea-shore.
Among the gods, Jesus Christ holds the first place, and is the express
image of the Supreme Father.
A general assembly of the gods, presided over by the Supreme Deity, is
the creating power.
When this world was created, Adam and Eve were taken from the family of
gods and placed in it. In the fall they lost all knowledge of their
heavenly origin, became possessed of mortal bodies, and only regained
what they had lost by the quickening of the Holy Spirit and continuous
progress in knowledge and purity.
Among other creations of the gods are innumerable spirits which can only
attain to the rank of gods by the rugged road of discipline and trial
trod by our first parents. These spirits are constantly hovering over
our earth waiting for fleshy tenements in which to begin the steep
ascent.
As soon as a child is born, one of these spirits takes possession of it
and is then fairly launched forth upon its heavenly voyage.
Those who do not listen to the teachings of the church here will, at
death, enter upon a third estate or probationary sphere, when they will
have another opportunity, when, if they improve it aright, they will,
with all the faithful, enter upon the fourth estate, which is the estate
of the gods.
The Holy Spirit is a material substance filling all space, and can
perform all the works of the Supreme Deity. It is omnipresent; in
animals it is instinct, in man reason and inspiration, enabling him to
prophesy, speak with tongues, and perform miracles of healing and many
other wonderful things. The Holy Spirit can be imparted by the laying on
of hands by a priesthood properly constituted and duly authorized.
The two prominent features of Mormonism are polygamy and lust for power.
Salvation is not so much a matter of character as of the number of
family.
Such is the teaching of Brigham Young in his sermons, and of George Q.
Cannon, Heber Kimball, and of all the leading Mormons.
Social life among this people may be judged of from the Mormon estimate
of woman. She exists only as a necessity in man's exaltation and glory.
Her only hope of a future life depends upon her being united in
"celestial marriage" to some man. Thus joined, she will have a share in
her husband's glory. In marrying her, her husband confers upon her the
greatest possible honor, and for this she must be his obedient slave.
In order that she may be contented with her lot as a polygamous wife,
she is taught from childhood to look upon conjugal love as a weak and
foolish sentiment, and upon marriage as the only way to secure a future
life.
[Illustration: AN INDIAN ENCAMPMENT, WYOMING.]
The Mormons have been largely recruited in numbers by immigrants who
have been brought into Utah through the efforts of missionaries sent by
the church to other parts of America and to Europe. About six thousand
missionaries are thus employed. They leave their homes in Utah and go to
any part of the world to which they may be assigned by the authorities
of the church, paying their own expenses, or collecting the money for
their sustenance from their converts. These missionaries usually travel
in pairs, and preach, for the most part, in ignorant communities. It is
estimated that about 100,000 immigrants have gone to Utah under their
leadership. The organization of the missionary force is very complete
and effective. The immigrants, though for the most part ignorant, are
always able-bodied, and are usually industrious, frugal, and obedient to
discipline. The average yearly immigration is about 2,000 persons.
Mormonism has lately spread into the State of Nevada, and into Montana,
Idaho, Wyoming and Arizona.
The sect was founded by Joseph Smith at Manchester, New York, in 1830.
Smith was born December 23, 1805, at Sharon, Vermont. When only fifteen
years old he began to have alleged visions, in one of which, he asserts,
the angel Moroni appeared to him three times and told him that the Bible
of the Western Continent--a supplement to the New Testament--was buried
in a certain spot near Manchester. Four years after this event he
visited the spot indicated by the angel, and asserts that he had
delivered into his charge by another angel a stone box, in which was a
volume, six inches thick, made of thin gold plates, eight inches long by
seven broad, and fastened together by three gold rings. The plates were
said to be covered with small writing in the Egyptian character, and
were accompanied by a pair of supernatural spectacles, consisting of two
crystals set in a silver bow and called "Urim and Thummim." By aid of
these the mystic characters could be read. Joseph Smith, being himself
unable to read or write fluently, employed an amanuensis to whom he
dictated a translation, which was afterward, in 1830, printed and
published under the title of the "Book of Mormon." The book professes to
give the history of America from its first settlement by a colony of
refugees from the crowd dispersed by the confusion of tongues at the
Tower of Babel. These settlers having in the course of time destroyed
one another, nothing of importance occurred until 600 B. C., when Lehi,
his wife and four sons, with ten friends, all from Jerusalem, landed on
the coast of Chili, and from that period, according to the Mormon
theory, America became gradually peopled.
OGDEN.
Having heard much of the city of Ogden in Northern Utah--of its peculiar
origin and rapid progress--I resolved to rest there for a day or two
before proceeding to Corinne and other points in my route toward the
Sierras.
The pretty city of Ogden has had one of the wildest and most thrilling
of birthplaces.
To-day it reminds the stranger of one of the peaceful little cities of
old Massachusetts, nestled among the Berkshire Hills, wide of street,
stately of architecture, redolent of comfort and refinement.
But in reality Ogden is the child of Utah. Mines of precious metals are
its neighbors. It has been the scene of daring explorations, of Indian
raids, and of many murders and massacres. Its original inhabitants were
fanatics, so enthused with, so overwhelmed by their tenets, as to
believe themselves of all the world the favorites of the Almighty, the
only original handful of His saints, the small remnant of the human
family to which constant revelations from Heaven were vouchsafed.
Upheld by this fanaticism, drawn with it as by a magnet from all over
the United States, from Canada, from the countries of Europe, proselytes
came to join the Mormons. They journeyed by mule trains over the Plains,
or they walked perhaps, pushing their all in hand-carts before them.
They encountered persecution, suffering, and even death, undaunted. Some
of them, on their perilous journey to the Promised Land, subsisted on
roots. Some boiled the skins of their buffalo robes and ate them. Some
pushed their little carts on the last day of their lives and then laid
down to freeze before the land of their desire was in sight. Graves or
skeletons frequently marked their route of march, but still they came,
and having come they prospered.
Their farms throve; their boundaries increased; their settlements became
many.
With foolhardiness, but also with desperation, with dauntless
effrontery, with infinite pluck, they defied the United States and her
army, using the tiny handful of Mormon soldiery in a way that makes
one's mind run back to the story of Thermopylae.
Such was the blood that settled Ogden.
It was such inhabitants that Brigham Young, in 1850, advised to "put up
good dwellings, open good schools, erect a meeting-house, cultivate
gardens, and pay especial care to fruit raising," so that Ogden might
become a permanent settlement and the headquarters for the Mormons in
the northern portion of the Territory.
So well was his advice carried out that in 1851 the city was "made a
stake of Zion," divided into wards, and incorporated by act of
legislature.
From the very first, everything connected with the city seemed to have a
spice and dash about it.
Away back in 1540, Father Juan de Padilla and his patron, Pedro de
Tobar, went on an exploring expedition. On his return the priest spoke
of a large and interesting river he had found in that "Great Unknown,"
the Northwest.
The account so fired the hearts of his brother Spaniards that Captain
Garcia Lopaz de Cardenas was sent to explore further into that
wonderland. He returned telling of immense gulches, of rocky
battlements, and of mountains surrounding a great body of water. Many
believe that in that far distant time, about the time that Elizabeth
ascended the throne of England, before Raleigh had done himself the
honor of his discoveries and settlements in Virginia, Signor Cardenas
was simply taking a little vacation trip through Utah.
But however fabulous that may be, we know of a surety that on July 29,
1776, two Franciscan friars set out from Santa Fe to find a direct route
to the Pacific Ocean. In their wanderings they strayed far to the north,
where they came across many representatives of the Utes, who proved to
be a loving, faithful, hospitable people. From their lips the Spaniards
heard the first description ever listened to by white men of the region
of country containing the present site of Ogden. "The lake," the Utes
said, "occupies many leagues. Its waters are injurious and extremely
salt. He that wets any part of his body in this water immediately feels
an itching in the wet parts. In the circuit of this lake live a numerous
and quiet nation called Puaguampe. They feed on herbs, and drink from
various fountains or springs of good water which are about the lake, and
they have their little houses of grass and earth, which latter forms the
roof."
So the Great Salt Lake makes its entrance into comparatively modern
American history.
In 1825, Peter Skeen Ogden, accompanied by his party of Hudson Bay
Company trappers, pursued his brilliant adventures, and left behind a
record which induced the naming of the city after him.
In 1841, the country around the spot where the city now lies was held,
on a Spanish grant, by Miles M. Goodyear, who built a fort and a few
log-houses near the confluence of the Weber and Ogden rivers.
On June 6, 1848, a man named James Brown came from California with his
pockets stuffed with gold dust; nearly five thousand dollars' worth of
the precious thing had he. With part of it he bought this tract of land
from Goodyear. It proved to be a most fertile spot. Brethren came to it
from Salt Lake City. Gentiles came from everywhere. The settlement grew
and prospered.
In 1849, people began to talk of locating a city right there at the
junction of the two rivers.
In 1850, Brigham Young, Heber C. Kimball, and others, laid out the
settlement and called it Ogden, after Peter Skeen Ogden, the explorer,
long since dead, but whose dashing, daring, brilliant adventures were
still charming to the men of that wild land. Every time the city's name
is mentioned it is another proof that although,
"The man might die, his memory lives."
Before a year was over a school house was built in the city.
Then came that un-American sight, a wall of protection built around a
city. It cost $40,000, which amount was raised by taxation.
About this time several suburban settlements were formed, but bears,
wolves, and Indians soon drove the venturesome suburbanites within city
limits.
Just then a party of immigrants encamping on the Malade River shot two
Indian women. By way of reprisal the savages killed a pioneer named
Campbell who was building a saw-mill near Ogden, and threatened to
massacre the entire population of the town. Matters began to look
serious, and the commander of the Nauvoo Legion gave the Indians chase,
and so overwhelmed them that they at once retreated, taking with them
no captives more important than many horses and cattle belonging to the
white settlers.
[Illustration: SHEEP RANCHE IN WYOMING.]
October 23, 1851, the first municipal election was held in Ogden.
1852 found one hundred families living within city boundaries.
In 1854, a memorial was addressed to Congress, by the territorial
legislature, urging the construction of an overland railroad. But it was
May, 1868, before a contract was made between Brigham Young and the
superintendent of construction of the Union Pacific Railroad for grading
between Echo Canyon and the terminus of the line. At Weber Canyon there
was blasting, tunnelling, and heavy stone work for bridges to be done.
This work earned 1,000,000 or perhaps 1,250,000 dollars' worth of wages.
The labor was splendidly done, but the remuneration came slowly.
Finally, however, the Union Pacific Railroad turned over 600,000
dollars' worth of rolling stock, and other property to the Mormons. On
May 17, 1869, ground was broken for a railroad between Salt Lake City
and Ogden. So the city grew and flourished.
Ogden has an elevation of 4,340 feet. The ground plan of the city is
spacious, the drainage good, the climate exceedingly healthy.
About the time I rode through, the population numbered 6,000 souls. The
city contained one of the finest schools in Utah, a hotel which ranked
among the best in the Union, a daily paper, a theatre, three banks,
numerous Gentile churches, a 16,000 dollar bridge across the Weber, a
reservoir, and a Court House, which was such an architectural beauty
that all Utah may well be proud of it.
So Ogden came through narrow ways to broad ways! So she
"Climbed the ladder, round by round!"
She has won the respect and admiration of all who have watched her. May
her industry never fail, her enthusiasm never lessen, her pluck remain
indomitable, and may good fortune perch forever on her banners!