The Story of the Mormons, from the Date of Their Origin to the Year 1901 Part 48

The illness was diagnosed as, the usual malarial fever, accompanied in many cases with s...o...b..tic symptoms, which they called "black canker,"

due to a lack of vegetable food. In and around Winter Quarters there were more than 600 burials before cold weather set in, and 334 out of a population of 3483 were reported on the sick list as late as December.

The Papillon Camp, on the Little b.u.t.terfly River, was a deadly site.

Kane, who had the fever there, in pa.s.sing by the place earlier in the season had opened an Indian mound, leaving a deep trench through it. "My first airing," he says, "upon my convalescence, took me to the mound, which, probably to save digging, had been readapted to its original purpose. In this brief interval they had filled the trench with bodies, and furrowed the ground with graves around it, like the ploughing of a field."

But amid such affliction, in which cows went unmilked and corpses became loathsome before men could be found to bury them, preparations continued at all the camps for the winter's stay and next year's supplies. Brigham Young, writing from Winter Quarters on January 6, 1847, to the elders in England, said: "We have upward of seven hundred houses in our miniature city, composed mostly of logs in the body, covered with puncheon, straw, and dirt, which are warm and wholesome; a few are composed of turf, willows, straw, etc., which are comfortable this winter, but will not endure the thaws, rain, and suns.h.i.+ne of spring." * This city was divided into twenty-two wards, each presided over by a Bishop. The princ.i.p.al buildings were the Council House, thirty-two by twenty-four feet, and Dr. Richard's house, called the Octagon, and described as resembling the heap of earth piled up over potatoes to s.h.i.+eld them from frost. In this Octagon the High Council held most of their meetings. A great necessity was a flouring mill, and accordingly they sent to St. Louis for the stones and gearing, and, under Brigham Young's personal direction as a carpenter, the mill was built and made ready for use in January. The money sent back by the Battalion was expended in St. Louis for sugar and other needed articles.

* Millennial Star, Vol. IX, p. 97.

As usual with the pictures sent to Europe, Young's description of the comfort of the winter camp was exaggerated. P. P. Pratt, who arrived at Winter Quarters from his mission to Europe on April 8, 1847, says:--

"I found my family all alive, and dwelling in a log cabin. They had, however, suffered much from cold, hunger, and sickness. They had oftentimes lived for several days on a little corn meal, ground in a hand mill, with no other food. One of the family was then lying very sick with the scurvy--a disease which had been very prevalent in camp during the winter, and of which many had died. I found, on inquiry, that the winter had been very severe, the snow deep, and consequently that all my four horses were lost, and I afterward ascertained that out of twelve cows, I had but seven left, and, out of some twelve or fourteen oxen, only four or five were saved."

If this was the plight in which the spring found the family of one of the Twelve, imagination can picture the suffering of the hundreds who had arrived with less provision against the rigors of such a winter climate.

CHAPTER V. -- THE PIONEER TRIP ACROSS THE PLAINS

During the winter of 1846-1847 preparations were under way to send an organization of pioneers across the plains and beyond the Rocky Mountains, to select a new dwelling-place for the Saints. The only "revelation" to Brigham Young found in the "Book of Doctrine and Covenants" is a direction about the organization and mission of this expedition. It was dated January 14, 1847, and it directed the organization of the pioneers into companies, with captains of hundreds, of fifties, and of tens, and a president and two counsellors at their head, under charge of the Twelve. Each company was to provide its own equipment, and to take seeds and farming implements. "Let every man," it commanded, "use all his influence and property to remove this people to the place where the Lord shall locate a Stake of Zion." The power of the head of the church was guarded by a threat that "if any man shall seek to build up himself he shall have no power," and the "revelation" ended, like a rustic's letter, with the words, "So no more at present," "amen and amen" being added.

In accordance with this command, on April 14* a pioneer band of volunteers set out to blaze a path, so to speak, across the plains and mountains for the main body which was to follow.

* Date given in the General Epistle of December 23, 1847. Others say April 7.

It is difficult to-day, when this "Far West" is in possession of the agriculturist, the merchant, and the miner, dotted with cities and flouris.h.i.+ng towns, and cut in all directions by railroads, which have made pleasure routes for tourists of the trail over which the pioneers of half a century ago toiled with difficulty and danger, to realize how vague were the ideas of even the best informed in the thirties and forties about the physical characteristics of that country and its future possibilities. The conception of the latter may be best ill.u.s.trated by quoting Was.h.i.+ngton Irving's idea, as expressed in his "Astoria," written in 1836:--

"Such is the nature of this immense wilderness of the far West; which apparently defies cultivation and the habitation of civilized life.

Some portion of it, along the rivers, may partially be subdued by agriculture, others may form vast pastoral tracts like those of the East; but it is to be feared that a great part of it will form a lawless interval between the abodes of civilized man, like the wastes of the ocean or the deserts of Arabia, and, like them, be subject to the depredations of the marauders. There may spring up new and mongrel races, like new formations in zoology, the amalgamation of the 'debris'

and 'abrasions' of former races, civilized and savage; the remains of broken and extinguished tribes; the descendants of wandering hunters and trappers; of fugitives from the Spanish-American frontiers; of adventurers and desperadoes of every cla.s.s and country, yearly ejected from the bosom of society into the wilderness.... Some may gradually become pastoral hordes, like those rude and migratory people, half shepherd, half warrior, who, with their flocks and herds, roam the plains of upper Asia; but others, it is to be apprehended, will become predatory bands, mounted on the fleet steeds of the prairies, with the open plains for their marauding grounds, and the mountains for their retreats and lurking places. There they may resemble those great hordes of the North, 'Gog and Magog with their bands,' that haunted the gloomy imaginations of the prophets--'A great company and a mighty host, all riding upon horses, and warring upon those nations which were at rest, and dwelt peaceably, and had gotten cattle and goods."'

"What about the country between the Missouri River and the Pacific,"

asked a father living near the Missouri, of his son on his return from California across the plains in 1851--"Oh, it's of no account," was the reply; "the soil is poor, sandy, and too dry to produce anything but this little short gra.s.s afterward learned to be so rich in nutriment, and, when it does rain, in three hours afterward you could not tell that it had rained at all."*

* Nebraska Historical Society papers.

But while this distant West was still so unknown to the settled parts of the country, these Mormon pioneers were by no means the first to traverse it, as the records of the journeyings of Lewis and Clark, Ezekiel Williams, General W. H. Ashley, Wilson Price Hunt, Major S. H.

Long, Captain W. Sublette, Bonneville, Fremont, and others show.

The pioneer band of the Mormons consisted of 143 men, three women (wives of Brigham and Lorenzo Young and H. C. Kimball), and two children. They took with them seventy-three wagons. Their chief officers were Brigham Young, Lieutenant General; Stephen Markham, Colonel; John Pack, First Major; Shadrack Roundy, Second Major, two captains of hundreds, and fourteen captains of companies. The order of march was intelligently arranged, with a view to the probability of meeting Indians who, if not dangerous to life, had little regard for personal property. The Indians of the Platte region were notorious thieves, but had not the reputation as warriors of their more northern neighbors. The regulations required that each private should walk constantly beside his wagon, leaving it only by his officer's command. In order to make as compact a force as possible, two wagons were to move abreast whenever this could be done.

Every man was to keep his weapons loaded, and special care was insisted upon that the caps, flints, and locks should be in good condition. They had with them one small cannon mounted on wheels.

The bugle for rising sounded at 5 A.M., and two hours were allowed for breakfast and prayers. At night each man was to retire into his wagon for prayer at 8.30 o'clock, and for the night's rest at 9. The night camp was formed by drawing up the wagons in a semicircle, with the river in the rear, if they camped near its bank, or otherwise with the wagons in a circle, a forewheel of one touching the hind wheel of the next. In this way an effective corral for the animals was provided within.

At the head of Grand Island, on April 30, they had their first sight of buffaloes. A hunting party was organized at once, and a herd of sixty-five of the animals was pursued for several miles in full view of the camp (when game and hunters were not hidden by the dust), and so successfully that eleven buffaloes were killed.

The first alarm of Indians occurred on May 4, when scouts reported a band of about four hundred a few miles ahead. The wagons were at once formed five abreast, the cannon was fired as a means of alarm, and the company advanced in close formation. The Indians did not attack them, but they set fire to the prairie, and this caused a halt. A change of wind the next morning and an early shower checked the flames, and the column moved on again at daybreak. During the next few days the buffaloes were seen in herds of hundreds of thousands on both sides of the Platte. So numerous were they that the company had to stop at times and let gangs of the animals pa.s.s on either side, and several calves were captured alive.* With or near the buffaloes were seen antelopes and wolves.

* "The vast herds of buffalo were often in our way, and we were under the necessity of sending out advance guards to clear the track so that our teams might pa.s.s." Erastus SNOW, "Address to the Pioneers," in Mo.

At Grand Island the question of their further route was carefully debated. There was a well-known trail to Fort Laramie on the south side of the river, used by those who set out from Independence, Missouri, for Oregon. Good pasture was a.s.sured on that side, but it was argued that, if this party made a new trail along the north side of the river, the Mormons would have what might be considered a route of their own, separated from other westward emigrants. This view prevailed, and the course then selected became known in after years as the Mormon Trail (sometimes called the "Old Mormon Road"); the line of the Union Pacific Railroad follows it for many miles.

Their decision caused them a good deal of anxiety about forage for their animals before they reached Fort Laramie. It had not rained at the latter point for two years, and the drought, together with the vast herds of buffaloes and the Indian fires, made it for days impossible to find any pasture except in small patches. When the fort was reached, they had fed their animals not only a large part of their grain, but some of their crackers and other breadstuff, and the beasts were so weak that they could scarcely drag the wagons.

During the previous winter the church officers had procured for their use from England two s.e.xtants and other instruments needed for taking solar observations, two barometers, thermometers, etc., and these were used by Orson Pratt daily to note their progress.* Two of the party also constructed a sort of pedometer, and, after leaving Fort Laramie, a mile-post was set up every ten miles, for the guidance of those who were to follow.

* His diary of the trip will be found in the Millennial Star for 1849-1850, full of interesting details, but evidently edited for English readers.

In the camp made on May 10 the first of the Mormon post-offices on the plains was established. Into a board six inches wide and eighteen long, a cut was made with a saw, and in this cut a letter was placed. After nailing on cleats to retain the letter, and addressing the board to the officers of the next company, the board was nailed to a fifteen-foot pole, which was set firmly in the ground near the trail, and left to its fate. How successful this attempt at communication proved is not stated, but similar means of communication were in use during the whole period of Mormon migration. Sometimes a copy of the camp journal was left conspicuously in the crotch of a tree, for the edification of the next camp, and scores of the buffaloes' skulls that dotted the plains were marked with messages and set up along the trail.

The weakness of the draught animals made progress slow at this time, and marches of from 4 to 7 miles a day were recorded. The men fared better, game being abundant. Signs of Indians were seen from time to time, and precautions were constantly taken to prevent a stampede of the animals; but no open attack was made. A few Indians visited the camp on May 21, and gave a.s.surances of their friendliness; and on the 24th they had a visit from a party of thirty-five Dakotas (or Sioux who tendered a written letter of recommendation in French from one of the agents of the American Fur Company. The Mormons had to grant their request for permission to camp with them over night, which meant also giving them supper and breakfast--no small demand on their hospitality when the capacity of the Indian stomach is understood).

Little occurred during May to vary the monotony of the journey. On the afternoon of June 1 they arrived nearly opposite Fort Laramie and the ruins of old Fort Platte, a point 522 miles from Winter Quarters, and 509 from Great Salt Lake. The so-called forts were in fact trading posts, established by the fur companies, both as points of supply for their trappers and trading places with the Indians for peltries. On the evening of their arrival at this point they had a visit from members of a party of Mormons gathered princ.i.p.ally from Mississippi and southern Illinois, who had pa.s.sed the winter in Pueblo, and were waiting to join the emigrants from Winter Quarters.

The Platte, usually a shallow stream, was at that place 108 yards wide, and too deep for wading. Brigham Young and some others crossed over the next morning in a sole-leather skiff which formed a part of their equipment, and were kindly welcomed by the commandant. There they learned that it would be impracticable--or at least very difficult--to continue along the north bank of the Platte, and they accordingly hired a flatboat to ferry the company and their wagons across. The crossing began on June 3, and on an average four wagons were ferried over in an hour.

Advantage was taken of this delay to set up, a bellows and forge, and make needed repairs to the wagons. At the Fort the Mormons learned that their old object of hatred in Missouri, ex-Governor Boggs, had recently pa.s.sed by with a company of emigrants bound for the Pacific coast.

Young's company came across other Missourians on the plains; but no hostilities ensued, the Missourians having no object now to interfere with the Saints, and the latter contenting themselves by noting in their diaries the profanity and quarrelsomeness of their old neighbors.

The journey was resumed at noon on June 4, along the Oregon trail. A small party of the Mormons was sent on in advance to the spot where the Oregon trail crossed the Platte, 124 miles west of Fort Laramie. This crossing was generally made by fording, but the river was too high for this, and the sole-leather boat, which would carry from 1500 to 1800 pounds, was accordingly employed. The men with this boat reached the crossing in advance of the first party of Oregon emigrants whom they had encountered, and were employed by the latter to ferry their goods across while the empty wagons were floated. This proved a happy enterprise for the Mormons. The drain on their stock of grain and provisions had by this time so reduced their supply that they looked forward with no little anxiety to the long march. The Oregon party offered liberal pay in flour, sugar, bacon, and coffee for the use of the boat, and the terms were gladly accepted, although most of the persons served were Missourians. When the main body of pioneers started on from that point, they left ten men with the boat to maintain the ferry until the next company from Winter Quarters should come up.*

* "The Missourians paid them $1.50 for each wagon and load, and paid it in flour at $2.50; yet flour was worth $10 per hundredweight, at least at that point. They divided their earnings among the camp equally."--Tullidge, "Life of Brigham Young," p. 165.

The Mormons themselves were delayed at this crossing until June 19, making a boat on which a wagon could cross without unloading. During the first few days after leaving the North Platte gra.s.s and water were scarce. On June 21 they reached the Sweet Water, and, fording it, encamped within sight of Independence Rock, near the upper end of Devil's Gate.

CHAPTER VI. -- FROM THE ROCKIES TO SALT LAKE VALLEY

More than one day's march was now made without finding water or gra.s.s.

Banks of snow were observed on the near-by elevations, and overcoats were very comfortable at night. On June 26 they reached the South Pa.s.s, where the waters running to the Atlantic and to the Pacific separate.

They found, however, no well-marked dividing ridge-only, as Pratt described it, "a quietly undulating plain or prairie, some fifteen or twenty miles in length and breadth, thickly covered with wild sage."

There were good pasture and plenty of water, and they met there a small party who were making the journey from Oregon to the states on horseback.

All this time the leaders of the expedition had no definite view of their final stopping-place. Whenever Young was asked by any of his party, as they trudged along, what locality they were aiming for, his only reply was that he would recognize the site of their new home when he saw it, and that they would surely go on as the Lord would direct them.*