The Story of the Mormons, from the Date of Their Origin to the Year 1901 Part 47

On October 9 wagons sent back by the earlier emigrants for their unfortunate brethren had arrived, and the start for the Missouri began.

Bullock relates that, just as they were ready to set out, a great flight of quails settled in the camp, running around the wagons so near that they could be knocked over with sticks, and the children caught some alive. One bird lighted upon their tea board, in the midst of the cups, while they were at breakfast. It was estimated that five hundred of the birds were flying about the camp that day, but when one hundred had been killed or caught, the captain forbade the killing of any more, "as it was a direct manifestation and visitation by the Lord." Young closes his account of this incident with the words, "Tell this to the nations of the earth! Tell it to the kings and n.o.bles and great ones."

Wells, in his ma.n.u.script, "Utah Notes" (quoted by H. H. Bancroft), says: "This phenomenon extended some thirty or forty miles along the river, and was generally observed. The quail in immense quant.i.ties had attempted to cross the river, but this being beyond their strength, had dropped into the river boats or on the banks."*

* Bancroft's "History of Utah," p. 234, note.

The westward march of these refugees was marked by more hards.h.i.+ps than that of the earlier bodies, because they were in bad physical condition and were in no sense properly equipped. Council Bluffs was not reached till November 27.

The division of the emigrants and their progress was thus noted in an interview, printed in the Nauvoo Eagle of July 10, with a person who had left Council Bluffs on June 26, coming East. The advance company, including the Twelve, with a train of 1000 wagons, was then encamped on the east bank of the Missouri, the men being busy building boats. The second company, 3000 strong, were at Mt. Pisgah, recruiting their cattle for a new start. The third company had halted at Garden Grove. Between Garden Grove and the Mississippi River the Eagle's informant counted more than 1000 wagons on their way west. He estimated the total number of teams engaged in this movement at about 3700, and the number of persons on the road at 12,000. The Eagle added:--

"From 2000 to 3000 have disappeared from Nauvoo in various directions, and about 800 or less still remain in Illinois. This comprises the entire Mormon population that once flourished in Hanc.o.c.k County. In their palmy days they probably numbered 15,000 or 16,000."

The camp that had been formed at Mt. Pisgah suffered severely from the start. Provisions were scarce, and a number of families were dependent for food on neighbors who had little enough for themselves. Fodder for the cattle gave out, too, and in the early spring the only subst.i.tute was buds and twigs of trees. Snow notes as a calamity the death of his milch cow, which had been driven all the way from Ohio. Along with their dest.i.tution came sickness, and at times during the following winter it seemed as if there were not enough of the well to supply the needed nurses. So many deaths occurred during that autumn and winter that a funeral came to be conducted with little ceremony, and even the customary burial clothes could not be provided.* Elder W. Huntington, the presiding officer of the settlement, was among the early victims, and Lorenzo Snow, the recent head of the Mormon church, succeeded him.

During Snow's stay there three of his four wives gave birth to children.

* "Biography of Lorenzo Snow," p. 90.

Notwithstanding these depressing circ.u.mstances, the camp was by no means inactive during the winter. Those who were well were kept busy repairing wagons, and making, in a rude way, such household articles as were most needed--chairs, tubs, and baskets. Parties were sent out to the settlements within reach to work, accepting food and clothing as pay, and two elders were selected to visit the states in search of contributions. These efforts were so successful that about $600 was raised, and the camp sent to Brigham Young at Council Bluffs a load of provisions as a New Year's gift.

The usual religious meetings were kept up during the winter, and the utility of amus.e.m.e.nts in such a settlement was not forgotten. Ingenuity was taxed to give variety to the social entertainments. Snow describes a "party" that he gave in his family mansion--"a one-story edifice about fifteen by thirty feet, constructed of logs, with a dirt roof, a ground floor, and a chimney made of sod." Many a man compelled to house four wives (one of them with three sons by a former husband) in such a mansion would have felt excused from entertaining company. But the Snows did not. For a carpet the floor was strewn with straw. The logs of the sides of the room were concealed with sheets. Hollowed turnips provided candelabras, which were stuck around the walls and suspended from the roof. The company were entertained with songs, recitations, conundrums, etc., and all voted that they had a very jolly time.

In the larger camps the travellers were accustomed to make what they called "boweries"--large arbors covered with a framework of poles, and thatched with brush or branches. The making of such "boweries" was continued by the Saints in Utah.

CHAPTER III. -- THE MORMON BATTALION

During the halt of a part of the main body of the Mormons at Mt. Pisgah, an incident occurred which has been made the subject of a good deal of literature, and has been held up by the Mormons as a proof both of the severity of the American government toward them and of their own patriotism. There is so little ground for either of these claims that the story of the Battalion should be correctly told.

When hostilities against Mexico began, early in 1846, the plan of campaign designed by the United States authorities comprised an invasion of Mexico at two points, by Generals Taylor and Wool, and a descent on Santa Fe, and thence a march into California. This march was to be made by General Stephen F. Kearney, who was to command the volunteers raised in Missouri, and the few hundred regular troops then at Fort Leavenworth. In gathering his force General (then Colonel) Kearney sent Captain J. Allen of the First Dragoons to the Mormons at Mt. Pisgah, not with an order of any kind, but with a written proposition, dated June 26, 1846, that he "would accept the service, for twelve months, of four or five companies of Mormon men" (each numbering from 73 to 109), to unite with the Army of the West at Santa Fe, and march thence to California, where they would be discharged. These volunteers were to have the regular volunteers' pay and allowances, and permission to retain at their discharge the arms and equipments with which they would be provided, the age limit to be between eighteen and forty-five years.

The most practical inducement held out to the Mormons to enlist was thus explained: "Thus is offered to the Mormon people now--this year--an opportunity of sending a portion of their young and intelligent men to the ultimate destination of their whole people, and entirely at the expense of the United States; and this advance party can thus pave the way and look out the land for their brethren to come after them."

There was nothing like a "demand" on the Mormons in this invitation, and the advantage of accepting it was largely on the Mormon side. If it had not been, it would have been rejected. That the government was in no stress for volunteers is shown by the fact that General Kearney reported to the War Department in the following August that he had more troops than he needed, and that he proposed to use some of them to reenforce General Wool.*

* Chase's "History of the Polk Administration," p. 16.

The initial suggestion about the raising of these Mormon volunteers came from a Mormon source.* In the spring of 1846 Jesse C. Little, a Mormon elder of the Eastern states, visited Was.h.i.+ngton with letters of introduction from Governor Steele of New Hamps.h.i.+re and Colonel Thomas L.

Kane of Philadelphia, hoping to secure from the government a contract to carry provisions or naval stores to the Pacific coast, and thus pay part of the expense of conveying Mormons to California by water. According to Little, this matter was laid before the cabinet, who proposed that he should visit the Mormon camp and raise 1000 picked men to make a dash for California overland, while as many more would be sent around Cape Horn from the Eastern states. This big scheme, according to Mormon accounts, was upset by one of the hated Missourians, Senator Thomas H.

Benton, whose Macchiavellian mind had designed the plan of taking from the Mormons 500 of their best men for the Battalion, thus crippling them while in the Indian country. All this part of their account is utterly unworthy of belief. If 500 volunteers for the army "crippled" the immigrants where they were, what would have been their condition if 1000 of their number had been hurried on to California? **

* Tullidge's "Life of Brigham Young," p. 47.

** Delegate Berahisel, in a letter to President Fillmore (December 1, 1851), replying to a charge by Judge Brocchus that the 24th of July orators had complained of the conduct of the government in taking the Battalion from them for service against Mexico, said, "The government did not take from us a battalion of men," the Mormons furnis.h.i.+ng them in response to a call for volunteers.

Aside from the opportunity afforded by General Kearney's invitation to send a pioneer band, without expense to themselves, to the Pacific coast, the offer gave the Mormons great, and greatly needed, pecuniary a.s.sistance. P. P. Pratt, on his way East to visit England with Taylor and Hyde, found the Battalion at Fort Leavenworth, and was sent back to the camp* with between $5000 and $6000, a part of the Battalion's government allowance. This was a G.o.dsend where cash was so scarce, as it enabled the commissary officers to make purchases in St. Louis, where prices were much lower than in western Iowa.** John Taylor, in a letter to the Saints in Great Britain on arriving there, quoted the acceptance of this Battalion as evidence that "the President of the United States is favorably disposed to us," and said that their employment in the army, as there was no prospect of any fighting, "amounts to the same as paying them for going where they were destined to go without."***

* "Unexpected as this visit was, a member of my family had been warned in a dream, and had predicted my arrival and the day."--Pratt, "Autobiography," p. 384.

** "History of Brigham Young," Ms., 1846, p. 150.

*** Millennial Star, Vol. VIII, p. 117.

The march of the federal force that went from Santa Fe (where the Mormon Battalion arrived in October) to California was a notable one, over unexplored deserts, where food was scarce and water for long distances un.o.btainable. Arriving at the junction of the Gila and Colorado rivers on December 26, they received there an order to march to San Diego, California, and arrived there on January 29, after a march of over two thousand miles.

The war in California was over at that date, but the Battalion did garrison duty at San Luis Rey, and then at Los Angeles. Various propositions for their reenlistment were made to them, but their church officers opposed this, and were obeyed except in some individual instances. About 150 of those who set out from Santa Fe were sent back invalided before California was reached, and the number mustered out was only about 240. These at once started eastward, but, owing to news received concerning the hards.h.i.+ps of the first Mormons who arrived in Salt Lake Valley, many of them decided to remain in California, and a number were hired by Sutter, on whose mill-race the first discovery of gold in that state was made. Those who kept on reached Salt Lake Valley on October 16, 1847. Thirty-two of their number continued their march to Winter Quarters on the Missouri, where they arrived on December 18.

Mormon historians not only present the raising of the Battalion as a proof of patriotism, but ascribe to the members of that force the credit of securing California to the United States, and the discovery of gold.*

* "The Mormons have always been disposed to overestimate the value of their services during this period, attaching undue importance to the current rumors of intending revolt on the part of the Californians, and of the approach of Mexican troops to reconquer the province. They also claim the credit of having enabled Kearney to sustain his authority against the revolutionary pretensions of Fremont.

The merit of this claim will be apparent to the readers of preceding chapters."--Bancroft, "History of California," Vol. V, p. 487.

When Elder Little left Was.h.i.+ngton for the West with despatches for General Kearney concerning the Mormon enlistments, he was accompanied by Colonel Thomas L. Kane, a brother of the famous Arctic explorer. On his way West Colonel Kane visited Nauvoo while the Hanc.o.c.k County posse were in possession of it, saw the expelled Mormons in their camp across the river, followed the trail of those who had reached the Missouri, and lay ill among them in the unhealthy Missouri bottom in 1847. From that time Colonel Kane became one of the most useful agents of the Mormon church in the Eastern states, and, as we shall see, performed for them services which only a man devoted to the church, but not openly a member of it, could have accomplished.

It was stated at the time that Colonel Kane was baptized by Young at Council Bluffs in 1847. His future course gives every reason to accept the correctness of this view. He served the Mormons in the East as a Jesuit would have served his order in earlier days in France or Spain.

He bore false witness in regard to polygamy and to the character of men high in the church as unblus.h.i.+ngly as a Brigham Young or a Kimball could have done. His lecture before the Historical Society of Pennsylvania in 1850 was highly colored where it stated facts, and so inaccurate in other parts that it is of little use to the historian. A Mormon writer who denied that Kane was a member of the church offered as proof of this the statement that, had Kane been a Mormon, Young would have commanded him instead of treating him with so much respect. But Young was not a fool, and was quite capable of appreciating the value of a secret agent at the federal capital.

CHAPTER IV. -- THE CAMPS ON THE MISSOURI

Mormon accounts of the westward movement from Nauvoo represent that the delay which occurred when they reached the Missouri River was an interruption of their leaders' plans, attributing it to the weakening of their force by the enlistment of the Battalion, and the necessity of waiting for the last Mormons who were driven out of Nauvoo. But after their experiences in a winter march from the Mississippi, with something like a base of supplies in reach, it is inconceivable that the Council would have led their followers farther into the unknown West that same year, when their stores were so nearly exhausted, and there was no region before them in which they could make purchases, even if they had the means to do so.

When the Mormons arrived on the Missouri they met with a very friendly welcome. They found the land east of the river occupied by the Pottawottomi Indians, who had recently been removed from their old home in what is now Michigan and northern Illinois and Indiana; and the west side occupied by the Omahas, who had once "considered all created things as made for their peculiar use and benefit," but whom the smallpox and the Sioux had many years before reduced to a miserable remnant.

The Mormons won the heart of the Pottawottomies by giving them a concert at their agent's residence. A council followed, at which their chief, Pied Riche, surnamed Le Clerc, made an address, giving the Mormons permission to cut wood, make improvements, and live where they pleased on their lands.

The princ.i.p.al camp on the Missouri, known as Winter Quarters, was on the west bank, on what is now the site of Florence, Nebraska. A council was held with the Omaha chiefs in the latter apart of August, and Big Elk, in reply to an address by Brigham Young, recited their sufferings at the hands of the Sioux, and told the whites that they could stay there for two years and have the use of firewood and timber, and that the young men of the Indians would watch their cattle and warn them of any danger.

In return, the Indians asked for the use of teams to draw in their harvest, for a.s.sistance in housebuilding, ploughing, and blacksmithing, and that a traffic in goods be established. An agreement to this effect was put in writing.

The arrival of party after party of Mormons made an unusually busy scene on the river banks. On the east side every hill that helped to make up the Council Bluffs was occupied with tents and wagons, while the bottom was crowded with cattle and vehicles on the way to the west side. Kane counted four thousand head of cattle from a single elevation, and says that the Mormon herd numbered thirty thousand. Along the banks of the river and creeks the women were doing their family was.h.i.+ng, while men were making boats and superintending in every way the pa.s.sage of the river by some, and the preparations for a stay on the east side by others--building huts, breaking the sod for grain, etc. The Pottawottomies had cut an approach to the river opposite a trading post of the American Fur Company, and established a ferry there, and they now did a big business carrying over, in their flat-bottom boats, families and their wagons, and the cows and sheep. As for the oxen, they were forced to swim, and great times the boys had, driving them to the bank, compelling them to take the initial plunge, and then guiding them across by taking the lead astride some animal's back.

Sickness in the camps began almost as soon as they were formed. "Misery Bottom," as it was then called, received the rich deposit brought down by the river in the spring, and, when the river retired into its banks, became a series of mud flats, described as "mere quagmires of black dirt, stretching along for miles, unvaried except by the limbs of half-buried carrion, tree trunks, or by occasional yellow pools of what the children called frog's sp.a.w.n; all together steaming up vapors redolent of the savor of death." In the previous year--not an unusually bad one--one-ninth of the Indian population on these flats had died in two months. The Mormons suffered not only from the malaria of the river bottom, but from the breaking up of many acres of the soil in their farming operations.