Fifty Years of Immigration

Fifty years ago, today, there arrived in this city, from the mouth of Parley's Canyon, a company of "Mormon" immigrants, about three hundred souls, who had crossed the plains and mountains in forty-nine wagons drawn by oxen, and who had left the Missouri river just two months before. It was one of ten trains which arrived in the Valley, that year, from the Missouri river with "Mormon" immigrants. It was the year 1866, the last year that our brethren and sisters from Europe, or from any other part of the world, crossed the plains and mountains all the way from the Missouri river, to these valleys with teams. It was nearly the end of that long period of pioneers experiences — twenty-two years — which is so closely associated with the early history of the Saints in these mountains. The year 1866 was a heavy emigration year with the Church. During the year, nine large sailing vessels, loaded with Latter-day Saints, crossed the Atlantic ocean from Europe to America. Three of these sailed from London, three from Liverpool, and three from Hamburg, Germany. The total number of "Mormon" immigrants from Europe, in 1866, was 3,241. Of this number 2,069 came from the British Isles, and 1,213 from Scandinavia. Included in the latter were a few saints from Germany. These ships spent all the way from thirty-seven to sixty days crossing the Atlantic ocean. ¶

I know something about that year's immigration because I came over myself in one of the nine ships mentioned, _ and that is one reason why I delight, on this particular occasion, to refer to this matter. It happened that I crossed the plains in Andrew H. Scott's company which arrived in this Valley, Oct. 8, 1866, just fifty years ago today. ¶

I shall never forget my experience in crossing the Atlantic in the ship Kenilworth and the plains in Captain Scott's ox team. I have often thanked the Lord that I came that year, and not later. Had I come the next year ( 1867), I should have been deprived of the privilege of traveling three hundred miles on foot, because that year the railroad had been built that far westward from the Missouri river; and the year following, (1868) it was built more than half way across the plains, and mountains, or as far as Ft. Laramie, and later in the year Ft. Benton, on the upper Platte. The next year (1869) all the fun was over. After that all the immigrants had to travel all the way by rail (laughter), and the ox team travel then became a thing of the past. So I say, I am very thankful ¶

that I came when the last opportunity in this world was given the "Mormon" emigrants of crossing the plains with ox teams the whole distance from the States to Salt Lake Valley. As a fifteen-yea'r-old boy, I "hoofed' it nearly all the way from the little village of Wyoming, in Nebraska on the Missouri river, to the City of the Saints. ¶

Brethren and sisters, I speak feelingly, and with a degree of enthusiasm and satisfaction, of the pioneer period. A great majority of those who are present here in this assembly have not had the opportunity of crossing the plains with ox teams, and will scarcely have that privilege in the future ; but you, or a majority of you, are undoubtedly sons and daughters, or grand children, of those noble pioneers who sacrificed so much to come to this land of Zion — to a place where the feet of their children could be planted firmly and where they could have the opportunity to learn more of the ways of the Lord, a privilege which most of you have had ever since you were born. ¶

The pioneer period will in one sense be forgotten soon, as the real actors are fast passing to the great beyond. Of the pioneers of 1847, only a few are left. There is only one left of those who came with the original pioneers, who with President Young, entered this Valley in July, 1847 ; namely, Brother Wm. C. A. Smoot, of Sugar House ward. He is the only surviving member of that noble band of pioneers who first entered Salt Lake Valle*y. There is, however, one more alive of those who came in the original pioneer company, although then only a six-year-old boy. I refer to Lorenzo Zabriskie Young who lives in Cleveland, Emery co., Utah, and is now 75 years old. These are the last two survivors of the original pioneer company. ¶

Following in the track of the first company of pioneers, about eighteen hundred other pioneers, consisting of men, women and children, arrived in the Valley, in 1847. Among them were some of the members of the Mormon Battalion, who arrived in this valley from the west, after they had made the journey from the Missouri river to California the year before; they had served their term of enlistment and came into the Valley soon after the pioneers. Nor must we forget to speak of the so-called sick detachment of the Battalion, who, after wintering at Pueblo on the Arkansas river, arrived in the valley a few days after the original pioneers company. This was all in 1847, and that you will understand was the beginning of the Latter-day Saints crossing the plains with mule, horse and ox teams. The original pioneers had mostly horses and mules, but most of the companies that followed were fitted out with ox teams, as it was found that oxen, as a rule, though slower in locomotion, could stand the journey across the plains better than mules and horses. ¶

The year 1848 witnessed the arrival of about four thousand souls in these mountain valleys from the Missouri river ; they were mostly • exiles from Nauvoo, who had been driven from their homes there in 1846 by a ruthless mob, and who had spent two winters at Winter Quarters, Nebraska. Some of them had also resided temporarily in Iowa, on the east side of the Missouri river. They all came here in the latter part of 1848. ¶

The next year (1849), about three thousand people arrived in this valley, and the following year about the same number. By the end of the year 1852, nearly all of those who had been exiled from Nauvoo had arrived in the valley, and we had a population here of about forty thousand, including some who came from Europe ; for as soon as the pioneers got permanently settled in the valley, the immigration from Europe, which had temporarily been suspended, commenced to pour in. ¶

I do not desire to go into details ; I will merely state that for a number of years our brethren and sisters, at a great expense, migrated to Utah from Europe and from the United States as far as their means would allow. The Church, however, at an early period — as early as 1849 — organized the so-called Perpetual Emigrating Fund Company, and by the operations of that Company a large number of people were assisted to emigrate to Utah. In 1856, a new and novel method of crossing the plains and mountains was inaugurated. President Brigham Young conceived the idea that the Latter-day Saints, who were generally men and women of good, moral character and possessed of good physiques and strong will power, could cross the plains without much assistance from either oxen, mules or horses. Hence,-' the handcart episode was introduced that year (1856), when five well organized companies of hand-cart immigrants crossed the plains. The first three of these companies under Captains Edmund Ellsworth, Daniel D. McArthur and Edward Bunker made the journey successfully ; but the last two companies which, under Captains James G. Willie and Edward Martin, started too late from the Missouri river, encountered heavy snow storms in the mountains and suffered much. This handcart method of travel continued more or less until 1860. Thus two handcart companies crossed the plains in 1857, one company in 1859 and two companies in 1860. Captains Daniel Robinson and Oscar O. Stoddard's companies were the last that crossed the plains with handcarts. ¶

And I desire to call your attention to this fact: In all the overland travel which has been undertaken in America, or in any other country, the handcart journeyings by the Latter-day Saints stand out alone and unique, inasmuch as no such travel has ever been attempted in any other part of the world, so far as I know. We have heard of a man traveling from the States to California with a wheelbarrow — not in a wheelbarrow ; he couldn't very well get himself to California in such a vehicle, but he traveled with a wheelbarrow. This man had not money to buy horses or wagons or any other kind of conveyance, so he carried his few belongings with him in a wheelbarrow. Of course he was an exceptional character. You might, perhaps, be tempted to call him a little cranky, but he was so anxious to get to the gold diggings in California, that he chose this hard and novel way of getting to his destination, rather than to be left behind. But when I speak of four thousand Latter-day Saints crossing the plains with handcarts, I do not speak of cranks, but of genuine heroes and heroines who, for the sake of their religion, exposed themselves to the hardships and ¶

perils of the desert, in order to get to Zion ; and I might say a majority of them arrived in these valleys in safety, while quite a number also died on the plains. ¶

In 1860, we again had a new experience in crossing the plains. It had been discovered that the cattle bought in the east — such cattle as had been raised on the luxuriant grasses of Missouri, Nebraska and Illinois — could not easily make the journey across the plains. They were not used to the bunch-grass ,or other grasses of the hills and therefore many of them succumbed to the hardships of the journey, while the rest as a rule got very tired and could scarcely bring the immigrants to their destination. Hence, in 1860, President Brigham Young conceived of another plan for bringing immigrants from the frontiers to Utah. It was this : he called upon the brethren who had already been comfortably located in these mountains, to send, or to take, their mountain oxen or mountain mules and horses that had been living on the bunch grass and other grasses here in Utah, to the Missouri river, and bring back the poor, those who had not the means to purchase their own outfit. This arrangement began in 1860. A little company was sdnt to the Missouri river that year under the leadership of Joseph W. Young, and made the journey successfully. After that, in 1861, 1862, 1863, 1864, and 1866, from two to five hundred teams were sent each year down to meet the immigration. We who lived in Europe were instructed to raise the necessary means to bring us to Florence or Wyoming, Nebraska, as best we could, and there the Church teams would meet us and bring us across the plains and mountains. This extensive emigration business was carried out by the Perpetual Emigrating Fund Company. ¶

I was speaking of the immigration to this valley fifty years ago. The nine shiploads of saints (three thousand immigrants) from Europe, added to the natives of the United States who joined them on the frontiers, made nearly five thousand people, who came to Utah in 1866, and I may add here that during the immigration years (1847-1868 inclusive) at least seventy thousand people crossed the plains in about two hundred twenty well organized companies. This will give you an idea of what was done in the shape of travel, between the east and this valley. Some, of course, but not many, came by way of California. ¶

Reverting again to 1866, I will state that the Church authorities, through the Perpetual Emigrating Fund Company, sent from Utah that year ten companies to the Missouri river after the poor. There were ten captains — a captain for each company — four hundred fiftysix teamsters, forty-nine mounted guards, eiehty-nine horses, one hundred thiry-four mules, three thousand forty-two oxen and three hundred ninety-seven wagons. Sixty-two wagons fifty oxen and sixty-one mules were sent for or bought in the east. These teams or companies left here, of course, in the spring, and they returned in the fall under the leadership, of Captains Thomas E. Ricks, Samuel D. Wright, Wm. H. Chipman, John D. Holliday, Peter Nebeker, Daniel Thompson, Jos. S. Rawlins, Andrew H. Scott, Horton D. Haight and Abner Lowry. ¶

I do not wish to harass your minds by a detailed account of the emigrants in the last company. They arrived in this Valley Oct. 22, 1866, three weeks later than Andrew H. Scott's company. The immigrants in that ill-fated company were mostly those who sailed from Hamburg, in the ship Cavour and arrived in New York later than some of the other ships. The Cavour met with storms and contrary winds on the ocean and the hardships of the voyage and the inadequacy of the supplies of food caused them to contract disease ; cholera broke out among these Saints as soon as they landed. I bring this matter to your attention just to show what some of the Latter-day Saints endured in their endeavors to come to Zion. Brother Elnathan Eldredge, who called at my office day before yesterday, drew my attention to this particular company and said that he helped to bury thirty-one corpses in one day at St. Joseph Mo., men, women and children, who had died in that company. The survivors continued the journey up the Missouri river and several died before they reached the village of Wyoming. It being so late in the season, the brethren in charge there had to load the immigrants into the wagons as best they could and start for the plains, at once. Time did not permit them to delay their departure. It is estimated that about one-third of the company which crossed the Atlantic in the Cavour, and the plains in Captain Lowry's train, died on the way, and never reached the Valley. But that was also the last of this overland travel from the Missouri river to Salt Lake Valley. Abner Lowry's emigrant train was the last of all "Mormon" emigrant trains to ¶

suffer severely on the plains. Some of the emigrant trains, in 1853 and 1854, had also suffered from cholera, but the fate of Abner Lowry's company was perhaps as sad as any. Thank God it ended there. ¶

I may add that while the completion of the Union Pacific Railroad put an end forever to the long overland, journey by oxen and wagons, about the same time the crossing of the Atlantic Ocean by Latter-day Saint emigrants in sailing vessels was also stopped. From that time until the present nearly all "Mormon" immigrants from Europe have crossed the sea in comfortable steamships, and have come in comfortable railway cars across the American continent to these mountains. ¶

By way of' conclusion, I will say : How thankful, my brethren and sisters, ought we not to be, that we are here in Zion, that those pioneer fathers and mothers of ours came here at that early day and caused most of us to be born and raised here under the droppings of the sanctuary in this beautiful city and the other settlements of the Saints. I have seen nearly all the large cities of the world, and let me tell you, there is only one Salt Lake City — only one city like this in the whole wide world. And I may be pardoned for believing that our beautiful city was founded by men who were favored with inspiration from on high. I believe the Lord inspired Brigham Young to locate this city just where it now stands, to make the blocks as large and the streets as wide as they ar,e, and to do what was done on general principles, not only in this city, but throughout all the settlements of the Saints in the Rocky Mountains. ¶

The lessons we learned in crossing the plains were lessons of experience for which we thank the Lord. We had a good time as a rule. It is true that some of our dear ones fell by the wayside, and now rest in lonely graves on the plains and mountain slopes, but the remainder of us lived to reach the Valley and to make our homes here. On the journey across the plains and mountains we also learned valuable lessons of order and discipline. We had our prayers and devotional services morning and night. Our leaders spoke comforting words to us every day, and when we sometimes became weary and somewhat discouraged, we would sing, "Come, Come Ye Saints no toil nor labor fear," and then renew our exertions. Sometimes, after a long and dreary march, we felt like lying down, never to rise again, but when some of our musicians and vocalists began to sing or play, we frequently found ourselves, in spite of fatigue and tired; [limbs, dancing on the grass in the midst of the camp enclosure. By the blessings of God who gave us strength and courage sufficient for our day, our lives were preserved, and while many died on the plains, many others who were sick nigh unto death, were healed by the power of God, through the administrations of the elders. I have in my mind at this moment scores of instances where the elders laid their hands on the sick who were struggling between life and death, and they were raised up by the power of Almighty God; and their children are here today to praise the Lord for their fathers and mothers. ¶

May God bless you. May we not only honor the pioneers, but honor the God of heaven who inspired our fathers and mothers to do the things they did in bringing themselves and us to these mountains. May God bless us and help us to be faithful and true to our calling as Latterday Saints, I ask it in the name of Jesus Christ. Amen. ¶