published in England.
1854.--_May_ 23. Patriarch John Smith died.
_June_ 28. John Smith, son of Hyrum Smith, was appointed Patriarch over
the Church.
1855.--_May_ 5. The Endowment House in Salt Lake City was dedicated.
_October_. A branch of the Church was organized in Dresden, Germany.
During this year grasshoppers and drouth caused a great failure of
crops in Utah.
_October_ 29. The First Presidency of the Church, in their General
Epistle, proposed, for the Saints who should emigrate by the P. E.
Fund, to cross the plains with handcarts.
1856.--During this year the practice of paying tithing was generally
introduced among the Saints in Europe. During the winter and spring
there was a great scarcity of food in Utah, and many domestic animals
perished.
_September_ 26. The first company of Saints, who crossed the plains
with handcarts, arrived.
1857.--_April_ 23. A company of about seventy missionary elders left
Salt Lake City to cross the plains with handcarts.
_July_ 11. A. Cumming, of Georgia, was appointed governor of Utah.
_July_ 23. Messrs. J. Stoddard and A. O. Smoot arrived from
Independence without the mails, the postmaster there having received
orders not to forward them. They brought the news that General Harney,
with over 2000 men, was ordered to Utah.
Near the close of the year, the U. S. army, under General Johnson, took
possession of Fort Bridger.
1858.--_March_ 21. The citizens of Utah, living north of Utah County,
agreed to abandon their homes and move south. This was deemed advisable
as a defensive measure.
In the meantime Col. Thos. L. Kane had arrived in Salt Lake City, via
California, for the purpose of bringing about a peaceful solution of
the difficulties between the U. S. and Utah.
_April_ 19. Gov. Cumming and Col. Kane visited the Utah library, where
they were shown the records and seal of the U.S. court, which was said
to have been destroyed.
_June_ 7. Messrs. Powell and McCullough, sent out as peace
commissioners, by the general government, arrived in Salt Lake City.
_June_ 26. The "Army of Utah," under Col. Johnson, passed through Salt
Lake City and camped on the west side of the river Jordan.
_June_ 30. The people who had moved south began to return to their
homes.
_October_ 28. Jacob Hamblin, with eleven men, left Southern Utah
to open intercourse with the Indians on the east side of the river
Colorado.
1861.--_April_ 23. Two hundred wagons, with four yoke of cattle each,
carrying 15,000 pounds of flour, started for the Missouri river, to
bring the poor of the Saints to Utah.
_October_ 18. President B. Young sent the first message over the
overland wire to the U.S.
_October_ 24. The first telegram was sent to San Francisco. In the
autumn of this year a large colony of Saints was sent to southern Utah.
1862.--_October_ 24. Camp Douglas, near Salt Lake City, was located by
Col. P. E. Connor.
1863.--Col. P. E. Connor defeated a band of the Shoshone Indians near
Bear river.
_March_ 3. Great mass meeting held in the Tabernacle, Salt Lake City,
to protest against the infamous course of U.S. officials.
1864.--_April_ 10. Moves were made for building a telegraph line in
Utah.
1866.--_January_ 1. The first number of the "Juvenile Instructor" was
issued in Salt Lake City.
1867.--The Deseret Telegraph Company was organized.
1868.--_June_ 19.--Ground was broken in Weber Canyon, on the U. P.
Railroad.
_October_ 16. Co-operative Mercantile Institution was organized. B.
Young, president.
_March_ 8.--U.S. Land Office opened in Salt Lake City.
_March_ 15. A company was partially organized for building a railroad
between Ogden and Salt Lake City.
_May_ 9. The last rail was laid connecting the U. P. and C. P.
railroads, thus completing the first railroad across the continent.
_May_ 17. The first ground was broken for the Utah Central Railroad.
_June_ 25. The first company of Latter-day Saint emigrants reached
Ogden, per U. P. R. R.
_December_ 24. In the evening street lamps were first used in Salt Lake
City.
1870.--_January_ 10. The last rail of the Utah Central Railroad was
laid.
_January_ 13. General mass meeting of the ladies of Salt Lake City, to
protest against the passage of the Cullom bill.
_February_ 12. "An act conferring the elective franchise upon women,"
became a law of Utah Territory.
_April_ 27, An abandoned child was left at the door of Mrs. The first
circumstance of the kind known in Salt Lake City.
_August_ 12. A discussion commenced, in Salt Lake City, between
Professor O. Pratt and Dr. J. P. Newman, chaplain of the U.S. Senate.
Question, "Does the Bible sanction polygamy?"
_September_ 15. Gov. J. W. Shafer issued a proclamation, forbidding the
assembly of the militia of Utah Territory for any purpose except by his
orders.
1871.--_May_ 1. Ground was first broken for the Utah Southern Railroad.
_June_ 30. Acting-Governor of Utah, George A. Black, issued a
proclamation forbidding any of the militia of the Territory to assemble
for the purpose of celebrating the ninety-fifth anniversary of American
Independence.
_October_ 10. President B. Young was arrested by U.S. Marshal on an
indictment founded on a charge of "lascivious cohabitation."
1872.--_June_ 1. The first number of the "Woman's Exponent was issued
in Salt Lake City.
_September_ 3 Ground was dedicated and broken for the Salt Lake City
water works.
_October_ 14. President G. A. Smith and others left Salt Lake City on
their Palestine tour.
1873.--_February_ 24. President Smith and party arrived in Jerusalem.
_June_ 18. President Smith arrived in Salt Lake City.
LATTER-DAY SAINTS' EMIGRATION.
The publications of the church show that, commencing with the year
1840 and ending with the year 1883, there have been emigrated from
the European countries to the United States, by the church emigration
agencies, 78,219 souls, who have crossed the sea in 243 sail vessels
and steamships.
These have come in companies of varied numbers, from a dozen or two at
a time to as many as eight hundred or more, which latter number has
embarked several times on double decked ships.
We regret our inability to give a tabulated statement of the number of
persons from each country of their nativity. The greater proportions
have been from Great Britain and Scandinavia, while Switzerland,
Germany, Italy, Iceland, Finland, East India, South Africa and other
countries have contributed to make up the number.
A very remarkable feature in this work of gathering Israel is that of
all these vessels that have gone to sea, no one with a Latter-day Saint
on it has ever gone down. Some have been driven back to Port before
they could get out of the Irish channel, one was dismasted before
reaching New Orleans, but all have yielded up their precious souls and
freight to the ports of their destination.
The organization, cleanliness and consequent health, peace and safety,
have rendered the Saints' emigration notorious and proverbial among
European shippers and ship captains, many of whom have been heard to
say that a company of Mormon emigrants on their ship they considered
better insurance than the underwriters at Lloyd's could give.
THE BOOK OF MORMON.
The Book of Mormon is the name of a record which was engraved upon
plates of gold, about 400 years after the crucifixion of our Lord and
Savior Jesus Christ, by a celebrated prophet named Mormon. These plates
were deposited by his son, Moroni, in a stone box, in a hill in the
western part of the State of New York, called by the Nephites, Cumorah.
The language in which this record was made was said by Mormon to be
Reformed Egyptian. On the 22d of September, 1823, Moroni discovered
the stone box which contained these plates, the Urim and Thummim, a
sword and breastplate, to the young Prophet, Joseph Smith, Jr., and
he, by the aid of the Urim and Thummim, translated the record from the
plates into the English language. This is the most ancient, the most
accurate and reliable history of America, its ancient inhabitants and
its antiquities, that is now extant; and has since been translated from
the English into the French, German, Italian, Danish, Swedish, Welsh,
Kanaka, Hindostanee, Dutch and Spanish. It has also been printed and
published in all those languages except Spanish, Hindostanee and Dutch,
and will soon be published in the Spanish also.