Descriptive Geography, Ethnology, and Statistics of Utah Territory.
Utah Territory, so called from its Indian owners, the Yuta--“those that
dwell in mountains”--is still, to a certain extent, _terra incognita_,
not having yet been thoroughly explored, much less surveyed or settled.
The whole Utah country has been acquired, like Oregon, by conquest
and diplomacy. By the partition of 1848, the parallel of N. lat.
42°, left unsettled, between the Rocky Mountains and the Pacific, by
the treaties of the 22d of October, 1818, and the 12th of February,
1819, was prolonged northward to N. lat. 49°, thus adding to the
United States California, Oregon, and Washington, while to Britain
remained Vancouver’s Island and the joint navigation of the Columbia
River. Under the Hispano-Americans the actual Utah Territory formed
the northern portion of Alta California, and the peace of Guadalupe
Hidalgo, concluded in 1848 between the United States and Mexico,
transferred it from the latter to the former.
[GEOGRAPHY OF UTAH TERRITORY.]
The present boundaries of Utah Territory are, northward (42° N. lat.),
the State of Oregon; and southward, a line pursuing the parallel
of N. lat. 37°, separating it from New Mexico to the southeast and
from California to the southwest. The eastern portion is included
between 106° and 120° W. long. (G.); a line following the crest of
the Green River, the Wasach, the Bear River, and other sections of
the Rocky Mountains, whose southern extremities anastomose to form
the Sierra Nevada, separate it from Nebraska and Kansas. On the west
it is bounded, between 116° and 120° W. long., by the lofty crest of
the Sierra Nevada; the organization, however, of a new territory, the
“Nevada,” on the landward slope of the Snowy Range, has diminished its
dimensions by about half. Utah had thus 5° of extreme breadth, and 14°
of total length; it was usually reckoned 650 miles long from east to
west, and 350 broad from north to south. The shape was an irregular
parallelogram, of which the area was made to vary from 188,000 to
225,000 square miles, almost the superficies of France.
The surface configuration of Utah Territory is like Central Equatorial
Africa, a great depression in a mountain land: a trough elevated 4000
to 5000 feet above sea level, subtended on all sides by mountains 8000
to 10,000 feet high, and subdivided by transverse ridges. The “Rim
of the Basin” is an uncontinuous line formed by the broken chains of
Oregon to the north, and to the south by the little-known sub-ranges
of the Rocky Mountains; the latter also form the eastern wall, while
the Sierra Nevada hems in the west. Before the present upheaval of
the country the Great Interior Basin was evidently a sweetwater
inland sea; the bench formation, a system of water-marks, is found
in every valley, while detached and parallel blocks of mountain,
trending almost invariably north and south, were in geological ages
rock-islands protruding from the lake surface like those that now
break the continuity of that “vast and silent sea” the Great Salt
Lake. Between these primitive and metamorphic ridges lie the secondary
basins, whose average width may be 15-20 miles; they open into one
another by kanyons and passes, and are often separated longitudinally,
like “waffle-irons,” by smaller divides running east and west, thus
converting one extended strip of secondary into a system of tertiary
valleys. The Great Basin, which is not less than 500 miles long by 500
broad, is divided by two large chains, which run transversely from
northeast to southwest. The northernmost is the range of the Humboldt
River, rising 5000-6000 feet above the sea. The southern is the
prolongation of the Wasach, whose southwestern extremity abuts upon the
Pacific coast range; it attains a maximum elevation of nearly 12,000
feet. Without these mountains, whose gorges are fed during the spring,
and even in the summer, by melted snow, there would be no water. The
levels of the valleys are still unknown; it is yet a question how far
they are irregular in elevation, whether they have formed detached
lakes, or whether they slope uniformly and by steps toward the Great
Salt Lake and the other reservoirs scattered at intervals over the
country.
The water-shed of the Basin is toward the north, south, east, and west:
the affluents of the Columbia and the Colorado rivers carry off the
greatest amount of drainage. One of the geographical peculiarities
of the Territory is the “sinking,” as it is technically called, of
the rivers. The phenomenon is occasioned by the porous nature of the
soil. The larger streams, like the Humboldt and the Carson rivers,
form terminating lakes. The smaller are either absorbed by sand, or
sink, like the South African fountains, in ponds and puddles of black
mire, beneath which is peaty earth that burns as if by spontaneous
combustion, and smoulders for a long time in dry weather: the waters
either reappear, or, escaping under the surface--a notable instance of
the “subterranean river”--feed the greater drains and the lakes. The
potamology is more curious than useful; the streams, being unnavigable,
play no important part in the scheme of economy.
Utah Territory is well provided with lakes; of these are two nearly
parallel chains extending across the country. The easternmost begins
at the north, with the Great Salt Lake, the small tarns of the Wasach,
the Utah, or Sweetwater Reservoir, the Nicollet, and the Little Salt
Lake, complete the line which is fed by the streams that flow from the
western counterslope of the Wasach. The other chain is the drainage
collected from the eastern slope of the Sierra Nevada; it consists of
Mud, Pyramid, Carson, Mono, and Walker’s lakes. Of these, Pyramid Lake,
so called by Colonel Frémont, its explorer, from a singular rock in the
centre, is the most beautiful--a transparent water, 700 feet above the
level of the Great Salt Lake, and walled in by precipices nearly 3000
feet high.
The principal thermal features of Utah Territory are the Bear Springs,
near the Fort Hall Road. The Harrowgate Springs, near Great Salt Lake
City, have already been alluded to. Between the city and Bear River
there is a fountain of strong brine, described as discharging a large
volume of water. There are sulphurous pools at the southern extremity
of the Great Salt Lake Valley. Others are chalybeate, coating the earth
and the rocks with oxide of iron. Almost every valley has some thermal
spring, in which various confervæ flourish; the difficulty is to find
good cold water.
Another curious geographical peculiarity of the Territory is the
formation of the mountains. For the most part the ridges, instead of
presenting regular slopes, more or less inclined, are formed of short
but acute angular cappings superimposed upon flatter prisms. It often
happens that after easily ascending two thirds from the base, the upper
part suddenly becomes wall-like and insurmountable.
[CLIMATE OF UTAH TERRITORY.]
Utah Territory is situated in the parallel of the Mediterranean; the
southern boundary corresponds with the provinces along the Amoor lately
acquired by Russia, and with Tasmania in the southern hemisphere. But
the elevation, that grand modifier of climate, renders it bleak and
liable to great vicissitudes of temperature. The lowest valley rises
4000 feet above sea level; the mountains behind Great Salt Lake City
are 6000 feet high; Mount Nebo is marked 8000, and the Twin Peaks,
that look upon the “Happy Valley,” were ascertained barometrically
by Messrs. O. Pratt and A. Carrington to be 11,660 feet in height:
in the western part of the Territory the Sierra Nevada averages 2000
feet above the South Pass, and it has peaks that tower thousands of
feet above that altitude. These snowy masses, in whose valleys thaw is
seldom known, exercise a material effect upon the climate, and cause
the cultivator to wage fierce war with the soil. The air is highly
rarefied by its altitude. Captain Stansbury’s barometrical observations
for May, June, July, and August, give as a maximum 27·80 at 9 A.M.
on the 4th of August, and minimum 22·86 at sunrise on the 19th of
June, with a general range between 25° and 26°. New-comers suffer
from difficulty of breathing; often after sudden and severe exercise,
climbing, or running, the effect is like the nausea, sickness, and
fainting experienced upon Mont Blanc and in Tibet; even horses feel it,
and must pass two or three months before they are acclimatized.[152]
[152] Subjoined is an abstract of meteorology kindly forwarded to me
by Judge Phelps:
“Great Salt Lake City, Utah, Oct. 24th, 1860.
“DEAR SIR,--The following is an abstract of meteorological
observations for the past year, from October, 1859, to October, 1860,
inclusive:
Yearly mean of barometer 25·855
Highest range 26·550
Lowest range 25·205
Thermometer attached (mean) 60°
Thermometer (open air) „ 71°
Thermometer, dry bulb „ 64°
Thermometer, wet bulb „ 58°
(All Fahrenheit.)
“The amount of fair days, 244. The remaining 121 were 31 stormy and
the residue cloudy and foggy.
“The course of the wind more than two thirds of the year goes round
daily with the sun; strongest wind south; worst for stock, north.
“Highest range of the thermometer, 96° in July; lowest range in
December--22° below 0.
“The amount of snow and rainwater was 12·257, which is somewhat over
1 foot.
“All the snow in the Valley was less than 3 feet, while perhaps in
the mountains it was more than 10 feet, which gives ample water for
irrigation.
“The weather during the year was steady, without extremes.
“Such was Utah in 1860.
“Respectfully, I have the honor to be, etc.,
W. W. PHELPS.”
The climate of the Basin has been compared with that of the Tartar
plains of High Asia. Spring opens in the valleys with great suddenness;
all is bloom and beauty below, while the snow-line creeps lingeringly
up the mountain side, and does not disappear till the middle of June.
Thus there are but three months of warmth in the high lands; the
low lands have four, beginning with a May-day like that of England.
At the equinoxes, both vernal and autumnal, there are rains in the
bottoms, which in the upper levels become sleet or snow. Between April
and October showers are rare; there are, however, exceptions, heavy
downfalls, with thunder, lightning, and hail. “Clouds without water”
is a proverbial expression; a dark, heavy pall, which in woodland
countries would burst with its weight, here sails over the arid,
sun-parched surface, and discharges its watery stores in the kanyons
and upon the mountains. During the first few years after the arrival
of the Saints there was little rain either in spring or autumn; in
1860 it extended to the middle of June. The change may be attributed
to cultivation and plantation; thus also may be explained the North
American Indian’s saying that the pale-face brings with him his rain.
The same has been observed in Kansas and New Mexico, and is equally
remarked by the natives of Cairo, the Aden Coal-hole, and Kurrachee.
Seed-time lasts from April to the 10th of June.
The summer is hot, but the lightness and the aridity of the air prevent
its being unwholesome. During my visit the thermometer (F.) placed
in a room with open windows showed at dawn 63-66°; at noon, 75°; and
at sunset, 70°: the greatest midday heat was 105°. The mornings and
evenings, cooled by breezes from the mountains, were deliciously soft
and pure. The abundant electricity was proved, as in Sindh and Arabia,
by frequent devils or dust-pillars, like huge columns of volcanic
smoke, that careered over the miraged plains, violently excited where
they touched the negative earth, and calm in the positive strata of
the upper air, whence their floating particles were precipitated.
Dust-storms and thunder-storms are frequent and severe. Clouds often
gather upon the peaks, and a heavy black nimbus rises behind the Wasach
wall, setting off its brilliant sunlit side, but there is seldom rain.
Showers are preceded, as in Eastern Africa, by puffs and gusts of cold
air, and are expected in Great Salt Lake City when the clouds come from
the west and southwest, opposite and over the “Black Rock;” otherwise
they will cling to the hills. Even in the hottest weather, a cold
continuous wind, as from the nozzle of a forge-bellows, pours down the
deep damp kanyons, where the snow lingers, and travelers, especially
at night, prepare to pass across the ravine mouths with blankets and
warm clothing. Where the federal troops encamped on the stony bench
opposite the Provo Kanyon, it was truly predicted that they would
soon be blown out. When summer is protracted, severe droughts are the
result. Harvest-time is in the beginning of July.
About early September the heat ends. In 1860, the first snow fell upon
the Twin Peaks and their neighborhood on the 12th of September. Rains
then usually set in for a fortnight or three weeks, and mild weather
often lasts till the end of October. November is partially a fine
month; after two or three snowy days, the Indian summer ushers in the
most enjoyable weather of the year, which, when short, ends about the
middle of November.
Winter has three very severe months, reckoned from December. Icy winds
blow hard, and gales are sometimes so high that spray is carried from
the Great Salt Lake to the City, a distance of 10-12 miles. In 1854-5
hundreds of cattle perished in the snow. Usually in mid-winter, snow
falls every day with a high westerly wind, veering toward the north,
and thick with poudré--dry icy spiculæ, hard as gravel. The thermometer
is not often below zero in the bottoms; on the 13th of December, 1859,
however, the thermometer at daylight, with the barometer at 26·250,
showed -22° (F.); 5° or 6° lower than it had ever been before. The snow
seldom lies in the valleys deeper than a man’s knee; it is dry, and
readily thawed by the sun. A vast quantity is drifted into the kanyons
and passes, where the people, as in Styria, often become prisoners at
home. These crevasses, hundreds of feet deep, retain their icy stores
throughout the year. It is asserted by those who believe in a Pacific
Railway upon this line[153] that the Wasach can be traversed at all
seasons; at present, however, sledge transit only is practicable, and
at times even that is found impossible.
[153] The Pacific Railroad in 1852 was unknown to the political
world: in 1856 it began to be necessary, and shortly afterward it
appeared in both “platforms,” because without it no one could expect
to carry the Mississippian and Pacific States, Texas, for instance,
and California. The Diary will show the many difficulties which
it must encounter after crossing the South Pass; as the West can
afford no assistance, provisions and material must all come from
the East--an additional element of expense and delay. The estimate
is roughly laid down at $100,000,000: it may safely be doubled.
The well-known contractor, Mr. Whitney, offered to build it for a
reservation of thirty miles on both sides: the idea was rejected
as that of a crazy man. It is promised in ten years, and will
probably take thirty. England, then, had better look to _her_ line
through Canada and Columbia--it would be worth a hundred East Indian
railroads.
It can not be doubted that this climate of arid heat and dry cold is
eminently suited to most healthy and to many sickly constitutions:
children and adults have come from England apparently in a dying
state, and have lived to be strong and robust men. I have elsewhere
alluded to the effect of rarefaction upon the English _physique_:
another has been stated, namely, that the atmosphere is too fine
and dry to require, or even to permit, the free use of spirituous
liquors. Paralysis is rare; scrofula and phthisis are unknown, as
in Nebraska--the climate wants that humidity which brings forward
the predisposition. It is also remarkable that, though all drink
snow-water, and though many live in valleys where there is no free
circulation of air, goître and cretinism are not yet named. The City
Council maintains an excellent sanitary supervision, which extends to
the minutest objects that might endanger the general health. The stream
of emigrants which formerly set copiously westward is now dribbling
back toward its source, and a quarantine is established for those who
arrive with contagious diseases. Great Salt Lake City is well provided
with disciples of Æsculapius, against whom there is none of that
prejudice founded upon superstition and fanaticism which anti-Mormon
writers have detected. Dr. Francis, an English Mormon, lately died,
leaving Dr. Anderson, a graduate of Maryland College, to take his
place: Dr. Bernhisel prefers politics to physic, and Dr. Kay is the
chief dentist.
[DISEASES.]
The normal complaints are easily explained by local
peculiarities--cold, alkaline dust, and overindulgence in food.
Neuralgia is by no means uncommon. Many are compelled to wear kerchiefs
under their hats; and if a head be not always uncovered, there is some
reason for it. Rheumatism, as in England, affects the poorer classes,
who are insufficiently fed and clothed. Pneumonia, in winter, follows
exposure and hard work. The pleuro-pneumonia, which in 1860 did so much
damage to stock in New England, did not extend to Utah Territory: the
climate, however, is too like that of the Cape of Storms to promise
lasting immunity. Catarrhs are severe and lasting; they are accompanied
by bad toothaches and sore throats, which sometimes degenerate into
bronchitis. Diphtheria is not yet known. The measles have proved
especially fatal to the Indians: in 1850, “Old Elk,” the principal
war-chief of the Timpanogos Yutas, died of it: erysipelas also kills
many of the wild men.
For ophthalmic disease, the climate has all the efficients of the
Valley of the Nile, and, unless suitable precautions are taken, the
race will, after a few generations, become tender-eyed as Egyptians.
The organ is weakened by the acrid irritating dust from the alkaline
soil, which glistens in the sun like hoar-frost. Snow-blindness is
common on the mountains and in the plains: the favorite preventive,
when goggles are unprocurable, is to blacken the circumorbital region
and the sides of the nose with soot--the kohl, surmah, or collyrium
of the Far West: the cure is a drop of nitrate of silver or laudanum.
The mucous membrane in horses, as among men, is glandered, as it were,
by alkali, and the chronic inflammation causes frequent hemorrhage:
the nitrous salts in earth and air exasperate to ulcers sunburns on
the nose and mouth: it is not uncommon to see men riding or walking
with a bit of paper instead of a straw between their lips. Wounds
must be treated to great disadvantage where the climate, like that of
Abyssinia, renders a mere scratch troublesome. The dryness of the air
produces immunity from certain troublesome excrescences which cause
shooting pains in humid regions, and the pedestrian requires no vinegar
and water to harden his feet: on the other hand, horses’ hoofs, as in
Sindh and Arabia, must be stuffed with tar, to prevent sun-crack.
Under the generic popular name “mountain fever” are included various
species of febrile affections, intermittent, remittent, and typhoid:
they are treated successfully with quinine.
Emigrants are advised to keep up hard work and scanty fare after
arrival, otherwise the sudden change from semi-starvation and absence
of fruit and vegetables upon the prairies to plenty in the settlements
may cause dyspepsia, dysentery, and visceral inflammation. Some are
attacked by “liver complaint,” the trivial term for the effects of
malaria, which, when inhaled, affects successively the lungs, blood,
liver, and other viscera. The favorite, and, indeed, the only known
successful treatment is by mineral acids, nitric, muriatic, and
others.[154] Scurvy is unknown to the settlers; when brought in after
long desert marches, it yields readily to a more generous diet and
vegetables, especially potatoes, which, even in the preserved form, act
as a specific. The terrible scorbutic disease, called the “black canker
of the plains,” has not extended so far west.
[154] The following is the favorite cure: it is upon the principle of
the medicinal bath well known in Europe.
℞ Acid. Nit. ℥i.
Acid. Mur. ʒii. Mis.
Of this fifteen drops are to be taken in a tumbler of water twice a
day before meals. The local application to the hepatic region is one
ounce of the nitro-muriatic acid in a quart of water, and applied
upon a compress every night.
[ANIMALS OF UTAH TERRITORY.]
There is not much sport with fur, feather, and fin in this part of
the Far West: the principal carnivors of the Great Basin are the
cougar (_F. unicolor_) and the cat-o’-mountain, the large and small
wolf, a variety of foxes, the red (_V. fulvus_), the great-tailed
(_V. macrourus_) and the silver (_V. argentatus_), whose spoils were
once worth their weight in silver. There are minks, ermines, skunks,
American badgers, and wolverines or gluttons, which ferret out
caches of peltries and provisions, and are said sometimes to attack
man. Of rodents the principal are the beaver, a burrowing hare, the
jackass-rabbit (_L. callotis_), porcupines, the geomys or gophar,
a sand-rat peculiar to America, the woodchuck or ground-hog, many
squirrels, especially the Spermophilus tredecim lineatus, which swarms
in hilly ground, and muskrat (_F. zibeticus_), which, like other
vermin, is eaten by Indians. The principal pachyderm is the hyrax,
called by the settlers “cony.” Of the ruminants we find the antelope,
deer, elk, and the noble bighorn, or Rocky Mountain sheep, the
moufflon or argali of the New World.
Of the raptors the principal are the red-tailed hawk (_B. borealis_),
the sharp-shinned hawk (_A. fuscus_), the sparrow-hawk, and the
vulturine turkey-buzzard. Of game-birds there are several varieties of
quail, called partridges, especially the beautiful blue species (_O.
Californica_), and grouse, especially the sage-hen (_T. urophasianus_):
the water-fowl are swans (_C. Americanus_), wild geese in vast
numbers, the white pelican, here a migrating bird, the cormorant
(_Phalacrocorax_), the mallard or greenhead (_A. boschas_), which
loves the water of Jordan and the western Sea of Tiberias, the teal,
red-breasted and green-winged, the brant (_A. bernicla_), the plover
and curlew, the gull (a small _Larus_), a blue heron, and a brown
crane (_G. Canadensis_), which are found in the marshes throughout the
winter. The other members of the family are the bluebird (_A. sialia_),
the humming-bird (_Trochilus_), finches, woodpeckers, the swamp
blackbird, and the snowbird, small passerines: there is also a fine
lark (_Sturnella_) with a harsh note, which is considered a delicacy in
autumn.
Besides a variety of gray and green lizards, the principal Saurian is
the Phrynosoma, a purely American type, popularly called the horned
frog--or toad, although its tail, its scaly body, and its inability
to jump disprove its title to rank as a batrachian--and by the
Mexicans chameleon, because it is supposed to live on air. It is of
many species, for which the naturalist is referred to the Appendix of
Captain Stansbury’s Exploration. The serpents are chiefly rattlesnakes,
swamp-adders, and water-snakes. The fishes are perch, pike, bass,
chub, a mountain trout averaging three pounds, and salmon trout which
has been known to weigh thirty pounds. There are but few mollusks,
periwinkles, snails, and fresh-water clams.[155]
[155] Mr. W. Baird, in the absence of Mr. S. Woodward, of the British
Museum, has kindly favored me with the following list of a little
collection from the Great Basin which I placed in his hands.
“British Museum, August 3d, 1861.
“DEAR SIR,--The Helix (with open umbilicus) is, I think, _H.
solitaria_; the large Physa is very near, if not identical with
the _P. elliptica_ of our collection; the next largest Physa comes
very near _P. gyrina_; the larger Lymnœa is _L. catascopium_, the
smaller ditto _L. modicella_. There are two species of the genus
_Lithoglyphus_, the one resembling very much the _L. naticoides_
of Europe, but most probably new; the other I should imagine to be
undescribed. There is a small _Paludina_ looking shell which comes
very near the _Paludina piscium_ of D’Orbigny. There is a species of
_Anodonta_ which corresponds with a shell we have from the Columbia
River, but of which I do not know the name. There is also a species
of _Cyclas_ which may be new, as I do not know at present any species
from North America exactly like it. Believe me, yours truly,
W. BAIRD.
“Capt. R. F. Burton.”
The botany of the Great Basin has been investigated by Messrs. Frémont
and Stansbury, who forwarded their collections for description to
Professor John Torrey, of New York: M. Remy has described his own
herbarium. To these valuable works the reader may be referred for all
now known upon the subject.
[GEOLOGY OF UTAH TERRITORY.]
The rocks in Utah Territory are mostly primitive--granite, brick-red
jasper, syenite, hornblende, and porphyry, with various quartzes,
of which the most curious is a white nodule surrounded by a
crystalline layer of satin spar. The presence of obsidian, scoriæ, and
lava--apparently a dark brown mud tinged with iron, and so vitrified by
heat that it rings--evidences volcanic action. Many of the ridges are a
carboniferous limestone threaded by calcareous spar, and in places rich
with encrinites and fossil corallines; it rests upon or alternates with
hard and compact grits and sandstone. The kanyons in the neighborhood
of Great Salt Lake City supply boulders of serpentine, fine gray
granite, coarse red ochrish pœcilated crystalline-white and metamorphic
sandstones, a variety of conglomerates, especially granitic, with tufa
in large masses, talcose and striated slates, some good for roofing,
gypsum (plaster of Paris), pebbles of alabaster and various kinds of
limestones, some dark and fetid, others oolitic, some compact and
massive, black, blue, or ash-colored, seamed with small veins of white
carbonate of lime, others light gray and friable, cased with tufa, or
veneered with jade. The bottom-soil in most parts is fitted for the
adobe, and the lower hills contain an abundance of fossilless chalky
lime, which makes tolerable mortar: the best is that near Deep Creek,
the worst is in the vicinity of Great Salt Lake City. Near Fort Hall,
in the northeast corner of the basin, there is said to be a mountain of
marble displaying every hue and texture: marble is also found in large
crystalline nodules like arragonite.
Utah Territory will produce an ample supply of iron.[156] According to
the Mormons, it resembles that of Missouri, and the gangue contains
eighty per cent. of pure metal, which, to acquire the necessary
toughness, must be alloyed with imported iron. Gold, according to
Humboldt, is constant in meridional mountains, and we may expect to
find it in a country abounding with crystalline rocks cut by dikes
of black and gray basalt and porous trap, gneiss, micaceous schists,
clayey and slaty shales, and other argillaceous formations. It is
generally believed that gold exists upon the Wasach Mountains, within
sight of Great Salt Lake City, and in 1861 a traveling party is
reported to have found a fine digging in the north. Lumps of virgin
silver are said to have been discovered upon the White Mountains, in
the south of the Territory, and Judge Ralston, I am informed, has
lately hit upon a mine near the western route. Copper, zinc, and lead
have been brought from Little Salt Lake Valley and sixty miles east
of the Vegas de Santa Clara. Coal, principally bituminous--like that
nearer the Pacific--is found mostly in the softer limestones south of
the city, in a country of various marls, indurated clays, and earthy
sandstones. In 1855 a vein of five feet thick, in quality resembling
that of Maryland, was discovered west of the San Pete Creek, on the
road to Manti. In Iron County, 250 to 280 miles south of Great Salt
Lake City, inexhaustible coal-beds as well as iron deposits are said to
line the course of the Green River, and, that nothing may be wanting,
considerable affluents supply abundant water-power. A new digging had
been discovered shortly before my arrival on a tributary of the Weber
River, east of the City of the Saints, and upon the western route
many spots were pointed out to me as future coal-mines. Timber being
principally required for building, fencing, and mechanical purposes,
renders firewood expensive: in the city a cartage of fifteen miles
is necessary, and the price is thereby raised from $7 in summer to a
maximum of $20 in the hard season per cord of sixteen by four feet.
Unless the Saints would presently be reduced to the necessity of
“breakfasting with Ezekiel,” they must take heart and build a tramroad
to the south.
[156] Magnetic iron ore is traced in the basaltic rock; cubes of
bisulphuret of iron are found in the argillaceous schists, and cubic
crystals of iron pyrites are seen in white ferruginous quartz.
Saltpetre is found--upon paper: here, as in other parts of America,
it is deficient: a reward of $500 offered for a sample of gunpowder
manufactured from Valley Tan materials produced no claimants. Sulphur
is only too common. Saleratus or alkaline salts is the natural produce
of the soil. Borax and petroleum or mineral tar have been discovered,
and the native alum has been analyzed and pronounced good by Dr.
Gale.[157] Rubies, emeralds, and other small but valuable stones are
found in the chinks of the primitive rocks throughout the western parts
of the Territory. I have also seen chalcedony, sardonyx, carnelian, and
various agates.
[157] 100 grammes of the freshly crystallized salt gave,
Water 73·0
Protoxide of manganese 08·9
Alumina 04·0
Sulphuric acid 18·0
Utah Territory is pronounced by immigrants from the Old Country to
be a “mean land,” hard, dry, and fit only for the steady, sober,
and hard-working Mormon. Scarcely one fiftieth part is fit for
tillage; farming must be confined to rare spots, in which, however,
an exceptional fertility appears. Even in the arable lands there is
a great variety: some do not exceed 8-10 bushels per acre, while
Captain Stansbury mentions 180 bushels[158] of wheat being raised
upon 3·50 acres of ground from one bushel of seed, and estimates the
average yield of properly-cultivated land at 40 bushels, whereas rich
Pennsylvania rarely gives 30 per acre.[159] I have heard of lands near
the fresh-water lake which bear from 60 to 105 bushels per acre.
[158] In the United States the bushel of wheat or clover-seed is 60
lbs.; of corn, barley, and rye, 56 lbs.; of oats, 35-36 lbs.
[159] The yield in Egypt varies from 25 to 150 grains for one planted.
[SOIL.]
The cultivable tracts are of two kinds, bench-land and bottom-land.
[FRUITS.]
The soil of the bench-lands is fertile, a mixture of the highland
feldspath with the débris of decomposed limestone. It is comparatively
free from alkalines, the bane of the valleys; but as rain is wanting,
it depends, like the Basses-Pyrénées, upon irrigation, and must be
fertilized by the mountain torrents that issue from the kanyons. As a
rule, the creeks dwindle to rivulets and sink in the porous alluvium
before they have run a mile from the hill-foot, and reappear in the
arid plains at a level too low for navigation: in such places artesian
wells are wanted. The soil, though fertile, is thin, requiring compost:
manure is here allowed to waste, the labor of the people sufficing
barely for essentials. I am informed that two bushels of semence are
required for each acre, and that the colonists sow too scantily: a
judicious rotation of crops is also yet to come. The benches are
sometimes extensive: a strip, for instance, runs along the western base
of the Wasach Mountains, with a varying breadth of 1-3 miles, from
80 miles north of Great Salt Lake City to Utah Lake and Valley, the
southern terminus of cultivation, a total length of 120 miles. These
lands produce various cereals, especially wheat and buckwheat, oats,
barley, and a little Indian corn, all the fruits and vegetables of a
temperate zone, and flax, hemp, and linseed in abundance. The wild
fruits are the service berry, choke-cherry, buffalo berry, gooseberry,
an excellent strawberry, and black, white, red, and yellow mountain
currants, some as large as ounce bullets.
[ALKALINE SALTS.]
The bottom-lands, where the creeks extend, are better watered than the
uplands, but they are colder and salter. The refrigerated air seeks
the lowest levels; hence in Utah Territory the benches are warmer than
the valleys, and the spring vegetation is about a fortnight later on
the banks of Jordan than above them. Another cause of cold is the
presence of saleratus or alkaline salts, the natural effect of the rain
being insufficient to wash them out. Experiment proved in Sindh that
nothing is more difficult than to eradicate this evil from the soil:
the sweetest earth brought from afar becomes tainted by it: sometimes
the disease appears when the crop is half grown; at other times it
attacks irregularly--one year, for instance, will see a fine field of
wheat, and the next none. When inveterate, it breaks out in leprous
eruptions, and pieces of efflorescence can be picked up for use: a
milder form induces a baldness of growth, with an occasional birth
of chenopodiaceæ. Many of the streams are dangerous to cattle, and
often in the lower parts of the valleys there are ponds and pools of
water colored and flavored like common ley. According to the people,
a small admixture is beneficial to vegetation; the grass is rendered
equal for pasturage to the far-famed salt-marshes of Essex and of the
Atlantic coast; potatoes, squashes, and melons become sweeter, and
the pie-plant loses its acidity. On the other hand, the beet has been
found to deteriorate, no small misfortune at such a distance from the
sugar-cane.
Besides salt-drought and frost, the land has to contend against an
Asiatic scourge. The cricket (_Anabrus simplex_?) is compared by the
Mormons to a “cross between the spider and the buffalo:” it is dark,
ungainly, wingless, and exceedingly harmful. The five red-legged
grasshopper (_Œdipoda corallipes_), about the size of the English
migratory locust, assists these “black Philistines,” and, but for
a curious provision of nature, would render the land well-nigh
uninhabitable. A small species of gull flocks from its resting-place
in the Great Salt Lake to feed upon the advancing host; the “glossy
bird of the valley, with light red beak and feet, delicate in form and
motion, with plumage of downy texture and softness,” stayed in 1848
the advance of the “frightful bug,” whose onward march nor fires, nor
hot trenches, nor the cries of the frantic farmer could arrest. We
can hardly wonder that the Mormons, whose minds, so soon after the
exodus, were excited to the highest pitch, should have seen in this
natural phenomenon a miracle, a special departure from the normal
course of events, made by Providence in their favor, or accuse them, as
anti-Mormons have done, of forging signs and portents.
But, while many evils beset agriculture in Utah Territory, grazing
is comparatively safe, and may be extended almost _ad libitum_. The
valleys of this land of Goshen supply plentiful pasturage in the
winter; as spring advances cattle will find gamma and other grasses
on the benches, and as, under the influence of the melting sun,
the snow-line creeps up the hills, flocks and herds, like the wild
graminivorants, will follow the bunch-grass, which, vivified by the
autumnal rains, breeds under the snow, and bears its seed in summer.
In the basin of the Green River, fifty miles south of Fillmore City,
is a fine wool-producing country 7000 square miles in area. Even the
ubiquitous sage will serve for camels. As has been mentioned, Durhams,
Devons, and Merino tups have found their way to Great Salt Lake City,
and the terrible milk-sickness[160] of the Western States has not.
[160] A fatal spasmodic disease produced in the Western States by
astringent salts in the earth and water: it first attacks cattle, and
then those who eat the infected meat or drink the milk. Travelers
tell of whole villages being destroyed by it.
In 1860 the Valley of the Great Salt Lake alone produced 306,000
bushels of grain, of which about 17,000 were oats. Lieutenant Gunnison,
estimating the average yield of each plowed acre at 2000 lbs. (33¹⁄₂
bushels), a fair estimate, and “drawing the meat part of the ration,
or one half,” from the herds fed elsewhere, fixes the maximum of
population in Utah Territory at 4000 souls to a square mile, and opines
that it will maintain with ease one million of inhabitants.
Timber, I have said, is a growing want throughout the country; the
“hair of the earth-animal” is by no means luxuriant. Great Cotton-wood
Kanyon is supposed to contain supplies for twenty years, but it
is chiefly used for building purposes. The Mormons, unlike the
Hibernians, of whom it was said in the last century that no man ever
planted an orchard, have applied themselves manfully to remedying the
deficiency, and the next generation will probably be safe. At present,
“hard woods,” elm, hackberry, pecan or button-wood, hickory, mulberry,
basswood, locust, black and English walnut, are wanted, and must be
imported from the Eastern States. The lower kanyons and bottoms are
clothed with wild willow, scrub maple, both hard and soft, box elder,
aspen, birch, cotton-wood, and other amentaciæ, and in the south with
spruce and dwarf ash. The higher grounds bear stunted cedars white and
red, balsam and other pines, the dwarf oak, which, like the maple, is a
mere scrub, and the mountain mahogany, a tough, hard, and strong, but
grainless wood, seldom exceeding eight inches in diameter. Hawthorn
(a _Cratægus_) also exists, and in the southern and western latitudes
the piñon (_P. monophyllus_), varying from the size of an umbrella to
twenty feet in height, feeds the Indians with its oily nut, which not
a little resembles the seed of the pinaster and the Mediterranean _P.
Pinea_, and supplies a rich gum for strengthening plasters.
[ANNUAL EXHIBITION IN UTAH TERRITORY.]
The present state of agriculture in the vicinity of Great Salt Lake
City will best be explained by the prospectus of the annual show for
1860.[161] Wheat thrives better than maize, which in the northern
parts suffers from the late frosts, and requires a longer summer. Until
oats and barley can be grown in sufficient quantities, horses are
fed upon heating wheat, which only the hardest riding enables them
to digest. _Holcus saccharatum_, or Chinese millet, succeeds where
insufficient humidity is an obstacle to the sugar-cane. The fault
of the vegetables here, as in California, is excessive size, which
often renders them insipid; the Irish potato, however, is superior to
that of Nova Scotia and Charleston; the onions are large and mild as
those of Spain. The white carrot, the French bean, and the cucumber
grow well, and the “multicaulis mania” has borne good fruit in the
shape of cabbage. The size of the beets suggested in 1853 the project
originated in France by Napoleon the Great: $100,000 were expended upon
sugar-making machinery; the experiment, however, though directed by a
Frenchman, failed, it is said, on account of the alkali contained in
the root, and the Saints are accused of having distilled for sale bad
spirit from the useless substance. The deserts skirting the Western
Holy Land have also their manna; the leaves of poplars and other
trees on the banks of streams distill, at divers seasons of the year,
globules of honey-dew, resembling in color gum Arabic, but of softer
consistence and less adhesiveness: the people collect it with spoons
into saucers. Cotton thrives in the southern and southwestern part of
Utah Territory when the winter is mild: at the meeting-place of waters
near the Green and Grand Rivers that unite to form the Colorado, the
shrub has been grown with great success.
[161] List of premiums to be awarded by the Deserét Agricultural and
Manufacturing Society, at the Annual Exhibition, October 3d and 4th,
1860.
CLASS A.--CATTLE.
Awarding Committee--Hector C. Haight, Wm. Jennings, Wm. Miller, Alex.
Baron.
Best Durham bull $10 00
2d do. 5 00
3d do. dip.
Best Devon bull 10 00
2d do. 5 00
3d do. dip.
Best bull under 1 year 5 00
2d do. do. dip.
Best Durham cow and calf 5 00
2d do. do. 3 00
3d do. do. dip.
Best Devon cow and calf 5 00
2d do. do. 3 00
3d do. do. dip.
Best native or cross cow and calf. 5 00
2d do. do. 3 00
3d do. do. dip.
Best 2 year old heifer 3 00
2d do. do. dip.
Best 1 year old heifer 2 00
2d do. do. dip.
Best matched native cattle 5 00
2d do. do. 3 00
3d do. do. dip.
Best blooded & wooled buck 5 00
2d do. do. 3 00
3d do. do. dip.
Best 2 ewes for blood and wool 4 00
2d do. do. 2 00
3d do. do. dip.
Best boar 3 00
2d do. 2 00
3d do. dip.
Best sow and pigs 3 00
2d do. 2 00
3d do. dip.
CLASS B.--FIELD CROPS.
Awarding Committee--A. P. Rockwood, Joseph Holbrook, L. E.
Harrington, John Rowberry.
Best fenced and cultivated farm not
less than twenty acres $5 00
2d do. dip.
Best fenced and cultivated garden 5 00
2d do. dip.
Best 5 acres of sugar-cane 15 00
2d do. 10 00
3d do. 5 00
4th do. dip.
Best 1 acre of sugar-cane 5 00
2d do. 3 00
3d do. dip.
Best 5 acres of wheat 5 00
2d do. 3 00
3d do. dip.
Best 5 acres of corn 5 00
2d do. 3 00
3d do. dip.
Best 5 acres of turnips 5 00
2d do. 3 00
3d do. dip.
Best 5 acres of beets 5 00
2d do. 3 00
3d do. dip.
Best 5 acres of carrots 5 00
2d do. 3 00
3d do. dip.
Best 1 acre of white beans 5 00
2d do. 3 00
3d do. dip.
Best 1 acre of peas 5 00
2d do. 3 00
3d do. dip.
Best 1 acre of flax 5 00
2d do. 3 00
3d do. dip.
Best 1 acre of hemp 5 00
2d do. 3 00
3d do. dip.
Best 1 acre of red clover 5 00
2d do. 3 00
3d do. dip.
Best 1 acre of potatoes 3 00
2d do. dip.
Best 1 acre of Hungarian grass 3 00
2d do. 2 00
3d do. dip.
Best acre of rye 3 00
2d do. dip.
Best acre of turnips 3 00
2d do. dip.
Best acre of beets 3 00
2d do. dip.
Best acre of carrots 3 00
2d do. dip.
Best 100 lbs. flax 5 00
2d do. 2 00
3d do. dip.
Best 100 lbs. hemp 5 00
2d do. 2 00
3d do. dip.
Best 10 lbs. manufactured tobacco 3 00
2d do. 2 00
3d do. dip.
Best 6 canes of Chinese sugar-cane 3 00
2d do. 2 00
3d do. dip.
Best 6 canes of field-corn 2 00
2d do. 1 00
3d do. dip.
Awarding Committee on Cotton and Tobacco--William Crosby, Robert D.
Covington, Joshua T. Willis, Jacob Hamblin, Jas. R. M‘Cullough.
Best 10 acres of cotton $30 00
2d do. 20 00
3d do. 15 00
4th do. 10 00
5th do. dip.
Best 5 acres of cotton 25 00
2d do. 20 00
3d do. 15 00
4th do. 10 00
5th do. dip.
Best 2 acres of cotton 20 00
2d do. 15 00
3d do. 10 00
4th do. 5 00
5th do. dip.
Best 1 acre of cotton 15 00
2d do. 10 00
3d do. 8 00
4th do. 5 00
5th do. dip.
Best ¹⁄₂ acre of cotton 10 00
2d do. 8 00
3d do. 6 00
4th do. 4 00
5th do. dip.
Best 5 acres of tobacco 25 00
2d do. 20 00
3d do. 15 00
4th do. 10 00
5th do. dip.
Best 1 acre of tobacco 15 00
2d do. 10 00
3d do. 5 00
4th do. dip.
CLASS C.--VEGETABLES.
Awarding Committee--Sidney A. Knowlton, Charles H. Oliphant, Thos.
Woodbury.
Best brace cucumbers $3 00
2d do. dip.
Best 3 squashes 2 00
2d do. dip.
Best 3 pumpkins. 2 00
2d do. dip.
Best 3 water melons 2 00
2d do. dip.
Best 3 cantaloupes 2 00
2d do. dip.
Best peck of tomatoes 2 00
2d do. 1 00
3d do. dip.
Best 3 early cabbages 1 50
2d do. dip.
Best 3 late cabbages 1 50
2d do. dip.
Best 3 red cabbages 1 50
2d do. dip.
Best 3 Savoy cabbages 1 50
2d do. dip.
Best 6 stalks of celery 2 00
2d do. dip.
Best 6 blood beets 2 00
2d do. dip.
Best 6 sugar beets 2 00
2d do. dip.
Best 6 carrots 2 00
2d do. dip.
Best 6 parsnips 2 00
2d do. dip.
Best 6 turnips 2 00
2d do. dip.
Best peck of silver onions 2 00
2d do. dip.
Best peck of yellow onions 2 00
2d do. dip.
Best peck of red onions 2 00
2d do. dip.
Best peck of potatoes 2 00
2d do. dip.
Best peck of sweet potatoes 5 00
2d do. 2 00
3d do. dip.
Best quart of Lima beans 2 00
2d do. dip.
Best quart of bush beans 2 00
2d do. dip.
Best quart of peas 2 00
2d do. dip.
Best 6 stalks of rhubarb 2 00
2d do. dip.
Best 4 heads of cauliflower 1 00
2d do. dip.
Best 4 heads of brocoli 1 00
2d do. dip.
Best 4 heads of lettuce 1 00
2d do. dip.
Best bunch of parsley 1 00
2d do. dip.
Best collection of radishes 1 00
2d do. dip.
Best collection of peppers 1 00
2d do. dip.
Best egg-plant 1 00
2d do. dip.
CLASS D.--FRUITS AND FLOWERS.
Awarding Committee--Edward Sayres, George A. Niel, Daniel Graves.
Best 6 apples $3 00
2d do. 2 00
3d do. 1 00
4th do. dip.
Best 6 peaches 3 00
2d do. 2 00
3d do. 1 00
4th do. dip.
Best 6 pears 3 00
2d do. 2 00
3d do. 1 00
4th do. dip.
Best 6 apricots 3 00
2d do. 2 00
3d do. 1 00
4th do. dip.
Best 6 quinces 3 00
2d do. 2 00
3d do. 1 00
4th do. dip.
Best 3 bunches of grapes 3 00
2d do. 2 00
3d do. 1 00
4th do. dip.
Best quart of native grafted plums 2 00
2d do. 1 00
3d do. dip.
Best pint of currants 2 00
2d do. 1 00
3d do. dip.
Best specimen of English cherries 3 00
2d do. 2 00
3d do. dip.
Best bed or hills of strawberries 3 00
2d do. 2 00
3d do. 1 00
4th do. dip.
Best raspberries 2 00
2d do. 1 00
3d do. dip.
Best gooseberries 2 00
2d do. 1 00
3d do. dip.
FLOWERS.
Best collection of China asters $1 00
2d do. dip.
Best collection of dahlias 2 00
2d do. dip.
Best collection of roses 2 00
2d do. dip.
Best collection of cut flowers 1 00
2d do. dip.
Best collection of pot flowers 1 00
2d do. dip.
[THE PAST OF MORMONLAND.]
The principal value of Utah Territory is its position as a great
half-way station--a Tadmor in the wilderness--between the Valley of the
Mississippi and the Western States, California and Oregon; it has thus
proved a benefit to humanity. The Mormons, “flying from civilization
and Christianity,” attempted to isolate themselves from the world in
a mountain fastness; they were foiled by an accident far beyond human
foresight. They had retired to a complete oasis, defended by sterile
volcanic passes, which in winter are blocked up with snow, girt by
vast waterless and uninhabitable deserts, and unapproachable from any
settled country save by a painful and dangerous march of 600-1000
miles. Presently, in 1850, the gold fever broke out on the Pacific
sea-board; thousands of people not only passed through Utah Territory,
but were also compelled to remain there and work for a livelihood. The
transit received a fresh impulse in 1858 by the gold discovered at
Pike’s Peak, and in 1859 by the rich silver mines found in the Carson
and Washoe Valleys, on the eastern slopes of the Sierra Nevada. Carson
Valley, which was settled by Colonel Reece in 1852, and colonized
in 1855 by 500 Mormons, was soon cleared of Saints by the influx of
prospectors and diggers, and the other El Dorados drew off much
Gentile population, which was an incalculable boon to the Mormons. They
thus rid themselves of the “thriving lawyers, gamblers, prostitutes,
criminals, and desperadoes, loafers, and drunkards,” who made New
Jerusalem a carnival of horrors. The scene is now shifted to Denver and
Carson cities, where rape and robbery, intoxication and shooting are
attributed to their true causes, the gathering together of a lawless
and excited crowd, not to the “baleful shade of that deadly Upas-tree,
Mormonism.”
The Mormons, having lost all hopes of safety by isolation, now seek it
in the reverse: mail communication with the Eastern and Western States
is their present hobby: they look forward to markets for their produce,
and to a greater facility and economy of importing. They have dreamed
of a water-line to the East by means of the Missouri head-waters,
which are said to be navigable for 350-400 miles, and to the West by
the tributaries of the Snake River, that afford 400. Shortly after
the foundation of Great Salt Lake City, they proceeded to establish,
under the ecclesiastical title “Stakes of Zion in the Wilderness,”
settlements and outposts, echelonned in skeleton, afterward to be
filled in, from Temple Block along the southern line to San Diego. The
importance of connecting the Atlantic with the Pacific by a shorter
route than the 24,000 miles of navigation round Cape Horn, has produced
first a monthly, then a weekly, and lastly a daily mail, and has opened
up a route from the Holy City to Carson Valley. So far from opposing
the Pacific Railroad, the local Legislature petitioned for it in
1849, and believe that it would increase the value of their property
tenfold. But as equal parts of Mormon and Gentile never could dwell
together in amity, extensive communication would probably result in
causing the Saints to sell out, and once more to betake themselves to
their “wilderness work” in Sonora, or in other half-settled portions
of Northern Mexico. This view of the question is taken by the federal
authorities, who would willingly, if they could, confer upon the
petitioners the fatal boon.
The Mormon pioneers, 143 in number, when sent westward under several
of the apostles to seek for settlements, fixed upon the Valley of the
Great Salt Lake. The advance colony of 4000 souls, expelled from Nauvoo
on the Mississippi, and headed by “Brigham the Seer,” arrived there
on the 24th of July, 1847, the anniversary of which is their 4th of
July--Independence Day. Before the end of the first week a tract of
land was ditched, plowed, and planted with potatoes. City-Creek Kanyon
was dammed for irrigation; an area of forty acres was fortified after
the old New England fashion by facing log houses inward, and by a
palisade of timber hauled from the ravines; the city was laid out upon
the spot where they first rested, the most eligible site in the Valley,
and prayers, with solemn ceremonies, consecrated the land.
[CONSTITUTION OF THE STATE OF DESERÉT.]
Early in 1849, the Mormons, irritated by the contemptuous silence of
the federal government, assembled themselves in Convention, and, with
the boldness engendered by a perfect faith, duly erected themselves
into a free, sovereign, and independent people, with a vast extent
of country.[162] Disdaining to remain in _statu pupillari_, they
dispensed with a long political minority, and rushed into the conclave
of republics like California, whose sons are fond of comparing her
to Minerva issuing full-grown from the cranium of Jupiter into the
society of Olympus. Roused by this liberty, the Senate and House of
Representatives of the United States of America, in Congress assembled,
on the 9th of September, 1850, sheared the self-constituted republic
of its fair proportions, and reduced it to the infant condition of New
Mexico, with the usual proviso in the organic act that when qualified
for admission as states they shall become slave or free, as their
respective Constitutions may prescribe. At present one of the principal
Mormon grievances is that, although their country can, by virtue of
population, claim admission into the Union, which has lately been
overrun with a mushroom growth, like Michigan, Minnesota, and Oregon,
their prayers are not only rejected, but even their petitions remain
unnoticed. The cause is, I believe, polygamy, which, until the statute
law is altered, would not and could not be tolerated, either in America
or in England. To the admission of other Territories, Kansas, for
instance, the slavery question was the obstacle. The pro party will
admit none who will not support the South, and _vice versâ_. Perhaps
it is well so, otherwise the old and civilized states would soon find
themselves swamped by batches of peers in rapidly succeeding creations.
[162] The following is the preamble to the Constitution: it is a fair
specimen of Mormon plain-dealing.
Provisional Government of the State of Deserét.--Abstract of
Convention Minutes. On the 15th of March, 1849, the Convention
appointed the following persons a Committee to draft a Constitution
for the State of Deserét, viz.: Albert Carrington, Joseph L. Heywood,
William W. Phelps, David Fullmer, John S. Fullmer, Charles C. Rich,
John Taylor, Parley P. Pratt, John M. Bernhisel, Erastus Snow.
March 18th, 1849. Albert Carrington, chairman of the Committee,
reported the following Constitution, which was read and unanimously
adopted by the Convention:
CONSTITUTION OF THE STATE OF DESERÉT.
PREAMBLE.--Whereas a large number of the citizens of the United
States, before and since the Treaty of Peace with the Republic of
Mexico, emigrated to, and settled in that portion of the territory of
the United States lying west of the Rocky Mountains, and in the great
interior Basin of Upper California; and
Whereas, by reason of said treaty, all civil organization originating
from the Republic of Mexico became abrogated; and
Whereas the Congress of the United States has failed to provide
a form of civil government for the territory so acquired, or any
portion thereof; and
Whereas civil government and laws are necessary for the security,
peace, and prosperity of society; and
Whereas it is a fundamental principle in all republican governments
that all political power is inherent in the people, and governments
instituted for their protection, security, and benefit should emanate
from the same:
Therefore your committee beg leave to recommend the adoption of the
following CONSTITUTION until the Congress of the United States shall
otherwise provide for the government of the Territory hereinafter
named and described by admitting us into the Union. WE, THE PEOPLE,
grateful to the SUPREME BEING for the blessings hitherto enjoyed, and
feeling our dependence on Him for a continuation of those blessings,
DO ORDAIN AND ESTABLISH A FREE AND INDEPENDENT GOVERNMENT, by the
name of the STATE OF DESERÉT, including all the territory of the
United States within the following boundaries, to wit: commencing at
the 33° of north latitude, where it crosses the 108° of longitude,
west of Greenwich; thence running south and west to the boundary of
Mexico; thence west to and down the main channel of the Gila River
(or the northern line of Mexico), and on the northern boundary
of Lower California to the Pacific Ocean; thence along the coast
northwesterly to the 118° 30′ of west longitude; thence north to
where said line intersects the dividing ridge of the Sierra Nevada
mountains; thence north along the summit of the Sierra Nevada
mountains to the dividing range of mountains that separate the waters
flowing into the Columbia River from the waters running into the
Great Basin; thence easterly along the dividing range of mountains
that separate said waters flowing into the Columbia River on the
north, from the waters flowing into the Great Basin on the south, to
the summit of the Wind River chain of mountains; thence southeast and
south by the dividing range of mountains that separate the waters
flowing into the Gulf of Mexico from the waters flowing into the Gulf
of California, to the place of beginning, as set forth in a map drawn
by Charles Preuss, and published by order of the Senate of the United
States in 1848.
The Mormons have another complaint, touching the tenure of their land.
The United States have determined that the Indian title has not been
extinguished. The Saints declare that no tribe of aborigines could
prove a claim to the country, otherwise they were ready to purchase it
in perpetuity by pay, presents, and provisions, besides establishing
the usual reservations. Moreover, the federal government has departed
from the usual course. The law directs that the land, when set off into
townships, six miles square with subdivisions,[163] must be sold at
auction to the highest bidder. The Mormons represent that although a
survey of considerable tracts has been completed by a federal official,
they are left to be mere squatters that can be ejected like an Irish
tenantry, because the government, knowing their ability and readiness
to pay the recognized pre-emption price ($1 25 per acre), fear lest
those now in possession should become lawful owners and permanent
proprietors of the soil.[164] Polygamy is here again to blame.
[163] Viz., the section of one square mile, the half section =320
acres, and the quarter section of 160 acres: the latter is the legal
grant to military settlers. The pre-emption laws in the United States
are just and precise; but in the mountains it is about as easy to
eject a squatter as to collect “rint” from Western Galway in the days
of Mr. Martin.
[164] In England and Scotland the rent for use of land averages one
quarter of the gross produce; in France, one third; unhappy India
gives one half; and the Territories of the United States nearly
nothing.
The Mormon settlements resemble those of the French in Canada and
elsewhere rather than the English in Australia, the Dutch at the
Cape, or the American squatters on the Western frontier. They eschew
solitude, and cluster together round the Church and the succedaneum for
the priest. In establishing these “stakes” they proceed methodically.
A tentative expedition, sent out to select the point presenting the
greatest facilities for settlements, is followed by a volunteer band
of Saints, composed of farmers, mechanics, and artisans, headed by an
apostle, president, elder, or some other dignitary. The foundations are
laid with long ceremonies. The fort or block-house is first built, and
when the people are lodged the work of agriculture begins. The cities
of Utah Territory are somewhat like the “towns” of Cornwall. At present
there are three long lines of these juvenile settlements established
as caravanserais in the several oases. The first is along the Humboldt
River to Carson Valley; the second is by the southern route, _viâ_
Fillmore; and the third is betwixt the two, along “Egan’s Route,” the
present mail line.
[COUNTIES IN UTAH TERRITORY.]
The counties, originally 5, increased in 1855 to 12, are now (1860) 19
in number, viz.:
1. Great Salt Lake County: the chief town is Great Salt Lake City; the
sub-settlements are the Sugar-House, 4 miles S. of Temple Block--the
invariable _point de départ_; Mill Creek, 7 miles; Great Cotton-wood,
8-9 miles; West Jordan, Jordan Mills, Herriman, and Union, or Little
Cotton-wood Creek, 12 miles; Drapersville, 20-21 miles S.; all small
villages, with good farming lands.
2. Utah County: the chief town is Provo or Provaux, on the Timpanogos
River, 45 miles; David City, on Dry Creek, 28 miles; Lake City, on
American Fork, 32 miles S.; Lehi City, 35 miles S.; Lone City, 37 miles
S.; Pleasant Grove or Battle Creek, 41 miles S.; Springville or Hobble
Creek, 53-54 miles; Palmyra, a small place east of the Lake, and north
of Spanish Fork, 59-60 miles; Spanish-Fork City, 61 miles S.; Pondtown,
64 miles S.; Payson City, on both banks of the Peet-Neet Creek, 64-65
miles S.; and Santa Quin, 74 miles S.
3. Davis County: chief town Farmington; others, Stoker, Centreville,
12·50 miles N., and Kaysville, 22 miles N.
4. Weber County: chief town Ogden City, on both sides of Ogden River,
40 miles E.; also North Ogden.
5. Iron County: chief town Parovan, so called from the Pavant Indians;
built on Centre Creek, 255 miles S. of Great Salt Lake City, and 96
miles from Fillmore, and incorporated in 1851. Also Cedar City, near
Little Salt Lake, 275 miles S.; St. Joseph’s Springs and Vegas de
Santa Clara, 200 miles from Cedar City. The Aztecs, as their rock
inscriptions prove, once extended to Little Salt Lake Valley.
6. Tooele County: chief town Tooele City, 32 miles W.; also “Eastern
Tooele City,” 26 miles W.; Grantsville, 27 miles W.; Richville and
Cedar Valley, 40 miles W.
7. San Pete Valley County and City, 131 miles, laid out by the
presidency in 1849, and incorporated in 1850; Fort Ephraim, 130 miles;
Manti City, 140 miles, on the southern declivity of Mount Nebo. Aztecan
pictographs have been found upon the cliffs in San Pete Valley.
8. Juab County: chief town Salt Creek, in a valley separated from Utah
Valley by a ridge, on which runs Summit Creek.
9. Box-Elder County and City, 60 miles N.; also Willow Creek and
Brigham’s City.
[COAL.]
10. Washington County: chief town Fort Harmony, on Ash Creek, 291 miles
S., and 20 miles N. of Rio Virgen.[165]
[165] I annex a description of Washington County, which lately
appeared in the “Deserét News:”
“Yesterday afternoon I met in the library of the University the
Hon. Wm. Crosby, the representative from Washington County to
our Legislature, who furnishes me with some items of information
respecting the county he represents worthy a passing notice,
especially as there is so little known of that county. The
inhabitants are estimated at about 1500 persons, chiefly engaged in
farming and grazing. The county of Washington in area is as large as
the State of Connecticut, generally of a barren, desert character,
broken and mountainous. On the borders of the Rio Virgen and the
Santa Clara there are narrow strips of land exceedingly fertile, on
which every thing grows with great richness, and at a cost of very
little labor. During the present year only 50,000 pounds of cotton
have been raised, but, properly cultivated and attended to, the
inhabitants there could raise all the cotton ever required by the
inhabitants of this Territory. At present its cultivation is almost
neglected for the want of proper facilities for its manufacture.
The entrance also of the army in 1857, followed by immense trains
of goods--which, by-the-by, some of the merchants never paid a cent
for, and it is very doubtful if they ever will--was also a crushing
competition to the people of Washington County.
“Every kind of fruit that has been tried there grows with great
luxuriance. The apple, pear, plum, apricot, peach, and fig trees do
exceedingly well. The English walnut-tree grew this year nine feet,
and the Catawba grape grew nineteen feet and a half before the 6th
of September. The bunches of those grapes, many of them, measured
nineteen inches in length. At Tocqueville, one of the small towns in
that county, one man raised this year two water-melons from one vine
that weighed, the one sixty, and the other fifty pounds.
“At the Agricultural Exhibition, held there last September, the fine
grapes which I have mentioned were on exhibition. At the same time
there was exhibited a stalk of cotton containing three hundred and
seven forms; a radish measuring eighteen inches in circumference; a
sunflower head thirty-six inches; and a monster castor-bean stalk;
a sweet potato-vine five feet and a half long; and one Isabella
grape-vine twenty-five feet long. One man had in his garden trees
which in six months grew as follows:
ft. in.
Washington Plum 8 6
Apple-trees 6 6
Apricots 7 0
Figs 7 0
Almond 7 2
Peach 8 6
Pears 6 0
“In climate, Washington embraces all the varieties from frigid to
torrid, from regions of perpetual frost to an eternal spring. Every
kind of out-door work, plowing, ditching, building, etc., can be
pursued throughout winter in some parts of the county, while in
others there are killing frosts throughout the whole year.
“I had almost forgotten to mention that the soil is excellent for the
grape, and during the present year very fine tobacco has been grown
there, as well as madder and indigo. The sorghum raised there has
a magnificent flavor, and without the ‘patent fixings,’ with very
little labor, and that of the simplest character, good sugar is made
from it. At the late exhibition the sorghum took the two highest
prizes. I believe the honorable member from Washington has brought
with him a few gallons of this very fine molasses as a _cadeau_ to
the Prophet. To readers who have every luxury in abundance and at
very moderate figures, these items may have little interest, but to
those who watch the progress of the people here, and the reclaiming
of the desert, this information has great significance. In a few
years every thing that the people require will be raised from their
own soil, and manufactured by their own hands.
“Mr. Crosby, from whom I elicited these facts, was born in Indiana,
but ‘brought up’ in the Southern States. Mormonism got hold of him in
1843, in the State of Mississippi. Following the fortunes of Brigham,
he brought some nine or ten slaves, ‘very select niggers.’ In 1851
he went over to San Bernardino, and was bishop over there. The state
soon liberated the ebony folks, and Mr. Crosby, of course, lost his
$9000 or $10,000 by the operation.
“The Superintendent of the Church Public Works and a few others went
out exploring for coal about the Weber some time in August last,
and found a splendid bed of mineral. It promises to be the greatest
blessing that has yet fallen to the lot of the Saints. Of course I do
not look at things with ‘an eye of faith;’ that is their business.
But among people paying $10 per cord for wood, scarce at that, and
sure to be scarcer, the discovery of coal is an important matter. The
present coal-bed is about fifty miles distant; but, nevertheless,
paying $3 per ton at the mouth of the pit, at which it is now sold,
it can be brought into the city and sold for $20. Last year it was
sold here to blacksmiths for $40. The Pacific Railroad folks should
have an eye on this. The apprehension that the absence of coal and
wood in the Territory would be a serious obstacle need not now exist.
Though the wood is scarce and high priced as an article of daily
household consumption, railroad companies can get all the lumber they
require for money, though they may have to haul it far and pay a good
price for it. I believe that the whole country is full of coal, and
what is not coal is gold and silver; but I earnestly hope that the
day is far distant before the Mormons or any body else discover the
precious metals. The coal discovery, however, is very important. The
bishops of the city have been instructed to urge upon their flocks
the hauling of it, and it is hoped that by constant travel the snow
will be kept down and the roads clear all the winter. A Scotch miner,
who had just returned from the coal-bed, told me the other day that
it far exceeded any thing that he had ever seen in his own country,
or in the States, both in quality and abundance.”
11. Millard County: chief town, which is also the capital of Utah
Territory, Fillmore, in N. lat. 38° 58′ 40″, in a central position, 152
miles S. of Great Salt Lake City, 600 miles E. of San Francisco, and
1200 miles W. of St. Louis. The sum of $20,000 was expended upon public
buildings, but the barrenness of the soil has reduced the population
from 100 to a dozen families.
12. Green River County: Fort Supply.
13. Cedar County: chief town Cedar City. It is built upon an old
Aztecan foundation, rich in pottery and other remains.
14. Malad County: chief town Fort Malad, properly so called from its
slow, brackish, and nauseous river.
15. Cache County, the granary of Mormonland, and the most fertile spot
in the Great Basin; well settled and much valued: chief town Cache
Valley, 80 miles N.
16. Beaver County: chief town Beaver Creek, 220 miles S.
17. Shambip County: Rich Valley and Deep Creek.
18. Salt Lake Islands.
19. St. Mary’s County: west of Shambip City, extending to the Humboldt
River; chief settlement, Deep Creek.
I found it impossible to arrive at a true estimate of the population.
Like the earlier English numberings of the people, which originated in
bitter political controversies--the charge of unfairness was brought
as late as 1831 against the enumerators in Ireland--the census is a
purely party measure. The Mormons, desiring to show the 100,000 persons
which entitle them to claim admission as a state into the Union, are
naturally disposed to exaggerate their numbers; they are, of course,
accused of “cooking up” schedules, of counting cattle as souls, and of
making every woman a mother in _esse_ as in _posse_. On the other hand,
the anti-Mormons are as naturally inclined to underestimate: moreover,
as the “census marshals” receive but three halfpence per head, they are
by no means disposed to pay a shilling for the trouble of ransacking
every ranch and kanyon where the people repair for grazing and other
purposes. The nearest approach to truth will probably be met by
assuming the two opposite extremes, and by “splitting the difference.”
[POPULATION OF UTAH TERRITORY.]
In 1849 Mr. Kelly estimated the Mormons to be “about 5000 inhabitants
in the town, and 7000 more in the settlements.” In 1850 the seventh
official census of the United States numbered the inhabitants of Utah
Territory at 11,354 free + 26 slaves = 11,380 souls. In 1853 the Saints
were reckoned at 25,000 by the Gentiles, and 30,000 to 35,000 by Mr.
O. Pratt, in the “Seer.” In 1854 Dr. S. W. Richards estimated the
number at “probably from 40,000 to 50,000” in the United States, and in
Great Britain at 29,797. In 1856 the Mormon census gave 76,335 souls.
I subjoin a synopsis of the official papers.[166] In 1858 the Peace
Commissioners sent to Utah Territory reported that the Saints did not
exceed 40,000 to 50,000 souls, half of them foreigners, and that they
could bring 7000 men, of whom 1000 were valuable for cavalry, into the
field. In 1859 M. Remy made the number of Saints in Utah Territory, not
including Nevada, 80,000 souls, and the total in the world 186,000. The
last official census, in 1860, was taken under peculiar disadvantages.
General Burr, of the firm of Hockaday and Burr, was appointed to
that duty by Mr. Dotson, the anti-Mormon federal marshal. But as the
choice excited loud murmurs, the task was committed to a clerk in
the general’s store, and deputies for the rest of the Territory were
similarly chosen. The consequence is that the Gentile marshal’s census
of 1860 offers a number of 40,266 free + 29 slaves = a total of 40,295
souls; while the Mormons assert their Territory to contain from 90,000
to 100,000, and the world to hold from 300,000 to 400,000 Saints. Their
rise is remarkable, even if we take the statistics of the enemy, which
show nearly a quadrupling of the population in ten years, while Great
Britain creeps on at a rate of about ten per cent.: a similar increase
will in the ninth census of 1870 give in round numbers 160,000 persons.
Utah Territory now ranks second in the eight minor states: New Mexico
(93,541) and District of Columbia (75,076) take precedence of it, and
it is followed by Colorado (34,197), Nebraska (28,842), Washington
(11,578), Nevada (6857), and Dakotah (4839).
[166] The following is a condensed Report of the enumeration of the
inhabitants of Utah Territory, taken February, 1856:
+----------------------+------+--------+------+
| Counties. |Males.|Females.|Total.|
+----------------------+------+--------+------+
|Great Salt Lake County|12,730| 13,074 |25,804|
|Utah „ | 6,951| 7,614 |14,565|
|Davis „ | 4,765| 4,575 | 9,340|
|Weber „ | 3,486| 3,585 | 7,071|
|Iron „ | 2,474| 2,943 | 5,417|
|Tooele „ | 1,315| 1,673 | 2,988|
|San Pete „ | 1,110| 1,133 | 2,243|
|Juab „ | 807| 1,034 | 1,841|
|Box-Elder „ | 822| 717 | 1,539|
|Washington „ | 742| 778 | 1,520|
|Millard „ | 544| 512 | 1,056|
|Green River „ | 394| 345 | 739|
|Cedar „ | 312| 369 | 681|
|Malad „ | 259| 208 | 467|
|Cache „ | 240| 223 | 463|
|Beaver „ | 118| 126 | 244|
|Shambip „ | 83| 64 | 147|
|Salt Lake Islands | 125| 85 | 210|
| +------+--------+------+
| |37,277| 39,058 |76,335|
+----------------------+------+--------+------+
“Great Salt Lake City, March 1st, 1856.
“I do hereby certify that the above is a correct enumeration of
the white inhabitants of Utah Territory, according to the reports
furnished by my assistants, and which are now on file in my office.
LEONARD W. HARDY, Census Agent.”
“Great Salt Lake City, September 13th, 1860.
“The above is a correct transcript from the originals on file in the
Historian’s Office.
THOMAS BULLOCK, Clerk.”
I have vainly attempted to discover the proportion of native
Anglo-Americans to the foreign-born. The late Mr. Stephen A. Douglas,
who was supposed to know and to befriend the Saints, asserted it to
be one to ten. This will not hold good if applied to the authorities,
and if it fails at the head it will be inapplicable to the baser part
of the body politic, for the American in Mormondom is the prophet,
president, apostle, bishop, or other high dignitary who leavens
the lump of ignorance and superstition kneaded together in the old
countries. Of the thirteen members of the Upper House, there were, in
1860, ten Americans, two English, and one Irishman: of the officers,
viz., secretary and his assistant, sergeant-at-arms, messenger,
fireman, and chaplain, four were Americans, one English, and one
Irishman. The members of the Lower House, twenty-six in number,
consisted of twenty-four Americans and two Englishmen, including the
speaker, Mr. John Taylor: of its six officers, four were Americans, one
English, and one Scotchman. Both houses were thus distributed:
New York 13
Massachusetts 6
Vermont 5
England 4
Ohio 4
Tennessee 3
Kentucky 2
Ireland 2
Scotland 1
New Hampshire 2
Isle of Man 1
Pennsylvania 2
Virginia 1
Indiana 2
Rhode Island 1
--
Grand Total 49
The Mormon emigration is without exception the most interesting
feature in their scheme. There is an evident selection of species
in the supply: a man must be superior to many in “grit” and energy
who voluntarily leaves his native land. As regards the national
classification of the converts, it may be observed that the supply
depends upon the freedom of religious discussion at home. Great
Britain supplies five times more than all the rest of the world,
excepting Denmark. France must be proselytized through the Channel
Islands, and there are few converts of the Latin race, which
speaks a strange language, and is too much attached to the soil
for extensive colonization. Sweden sends forth few (67)--a fine of
twenty-six rix-dollars has there been imposed upon all who harbor,
let rooms to, or hold to service a Mormon; Denmark supplies many
(502), because the Constitution of 1849 guaranteed to her religious
liberty; Switzerland is, after a fashion, Republican; Germany gives
the fewest. Propagandism has not yet been thoroughly organized east of
Father Rhine; moreover, the Teuton, whose faith is mostly subordinate
to his fancy, finds superior inducements to settle while passing
through the Eastern States. All the “diverts” long retain their
motherlandish characteristics, and, associating together, are often
unable to understand the English sermon at the Tabernacle. The work of
proselytizing is slow in the United States; the analytic Anglo-American
prefers the _rôle_ of knave to that of fool, besides _un saint n’est
pas honoré dans son pays_, upon the principle that no man is a hero
to his valet. At Great Salt Lake City I saw neither Kanaka, Hindoo,
nor Chinese; these “exotics” have probably withered out since the
days of M. Remy; only one negro met my sight, and though a few Yutas,
principally Weber River, were seen in the streets, none of them had
Mormonized.
[MORMON EMIGRATION.]
Emigration in Mormondom, like El Hajj in El Islam, is the fulfillment
of a divine command. As soon as the Saints could afford it, they
established, under the direction of the First Presidency, a fund
for importing poor converts, appointed a committee for purchasing
transports, and established in Europe and elsewhere agents, who
collected $5000 in the first, and $20,000 in the second year. In
September, 1850, a committee of three officers was appointed to
transact the business of the poor fund, and an ordinance was passed
incorporating the “Perpetual Emigration Fund Company,” consisting
of thirteen members, including the First President. The Saint whose
passage is thus defrayed works out his debt in the public _ateliers_
of the Tithing Office Department, under the superintendence of the
Third President; he is supplied with food from the “Deserét Store,” and
receives half the value of his labor, besides which a tithe of his time
and toil is free. The anti-Mormons declare that by this means the faces
of the poor are ground: I doubt that so far-seeing a people as the
Mormons would attempt so suicidal a policy.
According to the late agent at Liverpool, and publisher of the
“Millennial Star,” Dr. S. W. Richards (Select Committee on Emigrant
Ships, 1854, No. 12, p. 8), the Mormon emigration, under its authorized
agent and passenger-broker, is better regulated than under the
provisions of the Passengers’ Act; the sexes are berthed apart, and
many home comforts are provided for the emigrants. In 1854 it was
estimated not to exceed 3000 souls per annum, and of 2600 the English
were 1430, 250 Welsh, 200 Scotch, and about a score of Irish, making a
total of 1900 Britons to 700 from the Continent. The classes preferred
by the Fund are agriculturists and mechanics--the latter being at
a premium--moral, industrious, and educated people, “qualified to
increase and enhance the interest of the community they go among.” From
Liverpool, whence all the emigration proceeds, to New Orleans, the
passage-money varied from £3 12_s._ 6_d._ to £4, and from New Orleans
to Great Salt Lake City £20 each. Of late years that line has been
abandoned as unhealthy: the route now lies by rail through New York
and Chicago to Florence, on the Missouri River. The emigration season
is January, February, and March, and the passage can be made at the
quickest in twenty-two days.
[MORMON EMIGRATION.]
I now proceed to figures, which are given in full detail, and can
easily be verified by a reference to Liverpool. The official reports
are subjoined, because they speak well for Mormon accuracy.[167] From
1840-54 they reckon 17,195 souls, and from 1854-55, 4716 souls; the
total in fifteen years (1840-55) being 21,911. From 1855-56 they number
4395 souls, and from the 1st of July, 1857, to the 30th of June, 1860,
they count 2433, making for the five subsequent years (1855-60) a
total of 6828. Thus, in the twenty years between 1840-60, they show a
grand total of 28,739 immigrants. They expect for the present year an
emigration of 1500 to 2000 souls from the British Isles, independent of
some hundreds from the Scandinavian, Swiss, and other missions. Already
200 teams have been dispatched from Great Salt Lake City to assist with
transport and provisions the poor emigrants from Florence. The Holy
Land of the West would soon be populous were it not for two obstacles:
first, the expense and difficulty of the outward journey; secondly,
the facility of emigration to the gold regions of Pike’s Peak and the
silver mines of the Nevada.
[167]
No. I.--_List of Latter-Day Saints’ Emigration, from January 6th,
1851, to May 15th, 1861._
+-----------------+---------------------+-------------+-------------+
|Date of Sailing. | Vessel. | Captain. |No. of Souls.|
+-----------------+---------------------+-------------+-------------+
|1851, January 6 |Ellen |Phillips | 466 |
| „ 22 |G. W. Bourne |Williams | 281 |
| February 2 |Ellen Maria |Whitmore | 378 |
| March 4 |Olympus |Wilson | 245 |
|1852, January 10 |Kennebec |Smith | 333 |
| February 10|Ellen Maria |Whitmore | 369 |
| March 6 |Rockaway | | 30 |
|1853, January 17 |Ellen Maria |Whitmore | 332 |
| „ 23 |Golconda |Kerr | 321 |
| February 5 |Jersey |Day | 314 |
| „ 15|Elvira Owen |Owen | 345 |
| „ 28|International |Brown | 425 |
| March 26 |Falcon |Wade | 324 |
| April 6 |Camillus |Day | 228 |
| |(Miscellaneous) | | 23 |
|1854, January 22 |Benjamin Adams |Drummond | 6 |
| February 4 |Golconda |Kerr | 464 |
| „ 22|Windermere |Fairfield | 477 |
| March 5 |Old England |Barstow | 45 |
| „ 12 |John M. Wood |Hartley | 393 |
| April 4 |Germanicus |Fales | 220 |
| „ 8 |Marshfield |Torrey | 366 |
| „ 24 |Clara Wheeler |Nelson | 29 |
| |(Miscellaneous) | | 34 |
| November 27|Clara Wheeler |Nelson | 422 |
|1855, January 6 |Rockaway |Mills | 440 |
| „ 7 |James Nesmith |Goodwin | 24 |
| „ 9 |Neva |Brown | 13 |
| „ 17 |Charles Buck |Smalley | 403 |
| February 3 |Isaac Jeans |Chipman | 16 |
| „ 27|Siddons |Taylor | 430 |
| March 31 |Jurenta |Watts | 573 |
| April 17 |Chimborazo |Vesper | 431 |
| „ 22 |Samuel Curling |Curling | 581 |
| „ 26 |William Stetson |Jordan | 293 |
| June 29 |Cynosure |Pray | 159 |
| November 30|Emerald Isle |Cornish | 350 |
| December 12|John J. Boyd |Austin | 512 |
|1856, February 19|Caravan |W. A. Sands | 457 |
| March 23 |Enoch Train |H. P. Rich | 534 |
| April 19 |S. Curling |S. Curling | 707 |
| May 4 |Thornton |Collins | 764 |
| May 25 |Horizon |Reed | 856 |
| June 1 |Wellfleet |Westcott | 146 |
| |(Miscellaneous Ships)| | 69 |
| November 17|Columbia |Hutchinson | 223 |
|1857, March 28 |George Washington |J. S. Comings| 817 |
| April 25 |Westmoreland |R. R. Decan | 544 |
| May 30 |Tuscarora |Dunlery | 547 |
| |(Miscellaneous) | | 50 |
| July 18 |Wyoming |Brooks | 36 |
|1859, April 11 |William Tapscott |J. B. Bell | 725 |
| July 10 |Antarctic | | 30 |
| August 20 |Emerald Isle |Cornish | 54 |
|1860, March 30 |Underwriter |J. W. Roberts| 594 |
| May 11 |William Tapscott |J. B. Bell | 731 |
| |(Miscellaneous) | | 263 |
|1861, April 15 |Manchester |Trask | 379 |
| „ 22 |Underwriter |J. W. Roberts| 624 |
| May 15 |Monarch of the Sea |Gardner | 950 |
| | | +-------------+
| | | Total | 21,195 |
+-----------------+---------------------+-------------+-------------+
“Latter-Day Saints’ European Publishing and Emigration Office, }
“42 Islington, Liverpool. }
“The above are the numbers of the Latter-Day Saints who have taken
passage on ships chartered at this port by the Church Emigration
Agent. Besides these, there are many who engage passages at other
offices--not being able to arrange their affairs to go when we have
ships chartered--whose numbers we do not have. The bulk of our
emigration, for the past few years, has left here in the spring. This
is the only time we have ships chartered. The scattering few who go
over in the summer and autumn, with the intention of remaining in the
United States until another spring, we do not keep any account of.
GEO. Q. CANNON.”
No. II.--_General Summary of Emigration, from Nov. 30th, 1855, to
July 6th, 1856._ (_It was discontinued in 1858, owing to troubles
with the U. S. Government._)
+--------------+-------------+-------------+--------------+------------+
| | |President of | Date of |Port of Dis-|
| Ship. | Captain. | Company. | Sailing. |embarkation.|
+--------------+-------------+-------------+--------------+------------+
|Emerald Isle |G. P. Cornish|P. C. Merrill|Nov. 30, 1855 |New York |
|John J. Boyd |Austin |C. Peterson |Dec. 12, 1855 |New York |
|Caravan |W. A. Sands |D. Tyler |Feb. 19, 1856 |New York |
|Enoch Train |H. P. Rich |J. Ferguson |Mar. 23, 1856 |Boston |
|S. Curling |S. Curling |D. Jones |April 19, 1856|Boston |
|Thornton |Collins |J. G. Willie |May 14, 1856 |New York |
|Horizon |Reed |E. Martin |May 25, 1856 |Boston |
|Wellfleet |Westcott |J. Aubray |June 1, 1856 |Boston |
|Miscellaneous}|.... |.... |.... |.... |
|Ships (U. S.)}| | | | |
| | | | | |
| | | | | |
+--------------+-------------+-------------+--------------+------------+
+--------------+-----------+-----------+-----------+
| | | | |
| Ship. |P. E. Fund.| Ordinary. | Totals. |
+--------------+-----------+-----------+-----------+
|Emerald Isle | ... | 350 | 350 |
|John J. Boyd | 34 | 478 | 512 |
|Caravan | ... | 457 | 457 |
|Enoch Train | 431 | 103 | 534 |
|S. Curling | 428 | 279 | 707 |
|Thornton | 484 | 280 | 764 |
|Horizon | 635 | 221 | 856 |
|Wellfleet | ... | 146 | 146 |
|Miscellaneous}| ... | 69 | 69 |
|Ships (U. S.)}| | | |
| +-----------+-----------+-----------+
| Total | 2012 | 2383 | 4395 |
+--------------+-----------+-----------+-----------+
Of this number, as the table shows, 2012 are P. E. Fund passengers,
of whom 333 were ordered out by their friends in Utah; also 780
members of many years’ standing in the Church have been forwarded
to Utah under the P. E. Fund Co.’s arrangements, and 28 are elders
returning home from missions. We have not the means of ascertaining
definitely, but the approximate numbers of those who started to
go through to Utah on their own means is 385, making a total of
those who started from here, with the intention of going through
to the Valley this season, about 2397, which will leave 1998
who have located for the present in various parts of the United
States, in order to obtain means to complete their journey whenever
circumstances will permit.
_Latter-Day Saints’ Emigration Report, from July 1st, 1857, to June
30, 1860._