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PIONEER DAY
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3
Mormons and their Pioneer day, or The Days of '47.
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Oooh, Oooh, Me, Me! I've Got A Bit 'o Pioneer Recollectin' To Do!
Monday, Jul 25, 2011, at 07:28 AM
Original Author(s): Patriarchal Gripe
Topic: PIONEER DAY -Link To MC Article- | ↑ | I went on Stake Trek a few summers ago, walking for and in behalf of my ancestor, who was deceased. His name is James Birch, an English emmigrant and convert from England, who brought his pregnant wife and two young children to the US of A pushing a handcart to Zion in Edmund Ellsworth's Company, which was the first handcart company to reach the Salt Lake Valley in the banner pioneer year of 1856.
I was perplexed by the company journal entries that had virtually nothing good to say about this stalwart pioneer who died just days short of the goal in Wyoming near the Big Sandy river. The journals said that he was a complainer, which I felt might be understandable for a man who was undergoing the final stages of dysentary from drinking water from buffalo wallows. Water that was basically raw sewage. Water that would have probably been safe to drink if it had been boiled and brewed for that favorite English drink, tea. Darn Word of Wisdom anyway.
So last summer I think it would be great to visit my great-grandmother's grave, his widow, in Coalville. So on my trusty motorbike I jump and ride to the Coalville cemetary to view this woman's grave. Find the right name on the tombstone, but the dates are wrong. Realize that it is her daughter who also has the same name. Horrified as I realize that my grandfather's widow was made the plural wife of her brother-in-law, and a few short years later her 15 year old daughter joined her in that marriage as her sister wife. That's right, married her mother's husband, who was her uncle.
Ah, I love pioneer day. And I don't need to wonder any more why these people didn't ever leave behind a record of their lives in journals or remembrances.
Don't get me started on old Father Allred who presented himself and 3 girls aged 13 and 14 years old to Brigham Young to be married.
Maybe my son's seminary teacher is right. When God took polygamy away, he took away the ability to understand it or the reasons it was practiced. Just one big stumbling block for us in this day and age, apparently.
| When Did Brigham Young And The Mormon Pioneers Really Know That "This Is The Place"? - Part 2
Monday, Jul 25, 2011, at 07:33 AM
Original Author(s): Eric Davis
Topic: PIONEER DAY -Link To MC Article- | ↑ | From the time Thomas Jefferson secured the acquisition of the Louisiana Purchase, the US government began funding a series of expeditions to explore and survey the western frontier of North America. Most expeditions proceeded under direct supervision of the Army Corps of Engineers, led by such notable officers as George Meade and John C. Fremont. Among the responsibilities of the Corps was discovering the most effective routes for moving people westward–fulfilling the “Manifest Destiny” of the United States. One of the roadblocks along the path of settling the Pacific coast was getting people from the east quickly and inexpensively. To that point only two options existed: (1) sailing around South America, and (2) traversing the rugged Rocky Mountains. Each option was costly and time-consuming. Then in 1830, just as Joseph Smith was organizing his new religion, officials in Washington began organizing their own new plan. In the 1820s, the first large scale, steam-powered locomotives were developed in Great Britain. Over the next decade, as this new technology was introduced to the United States, government leaders envisioned a railroad which could carry passengers from Atlantic to Pacific cheaply, and in mere days, rather than months. Over the next several years politicians waged debates as to how to accomplish railroad construction, and specifically which route would be followed. The first legislation to begin construction on what was then known as the “Pacific Railroad” was introduced to Congress by Representative Zadock Pratt in 1845. Asa Whitney (a distant cousin of Eli Whitney, cotton gin inventor), who had championed the bill, led a team across a portion of one proposed route, to assess its feasibility, in June that same year.[1] The United States once again needed the Army to begin laying the groundwork for the trail that would eventually become the Transcontinental Railroad. Eventually, the “central route”, starting from Chicago and ending at the port of San Francisco, became the most favored choice. Butthere was just one problem: San Francisco, and the California territory, still belonged to Mexico, and Mexico wasn’t interested in handing over the richest plot of land on earth so easily. Therefore the two nations commenced what would become a two year conflict in April, 1846. With the army called into action, establishing the roadbed for the Pacific Railroad would have to either be put on hold, or contracted to a civilian company. And it so happened that there was just such a company of able-bodied workers at hand, who not only had a wealth of construction experience, but who were also desperate for any kind of employment at the moment.
I will assert here that the 1846 negotiations with the Army, that included sending 500 Mormons to serve in the Mexican War, also detailed plans for the Saints to help establish the trail that would eventually become the eastern two-thirds of the railroad route. Brigham Young’s 1847 pioneer company served a dual purpose: (1) Exploring potential sites for their future home, and (2) forming the infrastructure for the future Transcontinental Railroad. Perhaps the reason why this job description was not common knowledge among rank and file members is because Young did not want his workers to know they were each earning wages from the government, for their service. In this case he, and thus the church, could maintain complete control of funds and expenditures; ergo, the secrecy in the negotiation process. Or perhaps these 142 men did understand their job duties, but were sworn to secrecy at the threat of “blood atonement.”
Just over two decades later, as the transcontinental project neared completion, Mormon leaders recalled their experiences of the time. “In a mass meeting held in Salt Lake City in June 1868, to give considerations to the coming railroad, George A. Smith, a cousin of Joseph Smith and soon to become a counselor to Brigham Young in the presidency of the LDS Church, reminded his audience that it really was the Mormons who had pioneered the route for the Pacific Railroad… ‘In April 1847, President Young and 143 (actual count was 142 men) pioneers left Council Bluffs and located and made the road to the site of this city. A portion of our labor was to seek out the way for a railroad across the continent, and every place we found that seemed difficult for laying the rails we searched a way for the road to go around or through it.’”[2]
This quotation does come with one caveat. Smith, who gave this speech to the Saints in Salt Lake, was the same man suspected of forging one of Joseph Smith’s “Rocky Mountain” prophecies, and who would invent the Brigham Young vision of the Salt Lake Valley the following year. With that said, there is significant evidence to demonstrate that members of the church had a hand in construction of the Transcontinental Railroad, from very early in the process.
Brigham Young, himself corroborated this notion when he said, “I do not think we traveled one day from the Missouri river here, but what we looked for a track where the rails could be laid with success, for a railroad through this territory to go to the Pacific Ocean.”[3]
The initial Mormon expedition of 1847 ran more like a military campaign than a group of settlers traveling to their new home. “Discipline of the pioneer company was strict and practical. The bugle blew at five in the morning, when all were to rise, assemble for prayers, feed the cattle, and get breakfast. At seven o'clock the second bugle gave signal for starting. Wherever practical, two wagons moved abreast; and in case an Indian attack was threatened, they were to move five or six abreast. Each man was required to walk beside his wagon, loaded gun in hand, and never to leave the wagon nor lay down the gun without permission of his captain.”[4] “The Mormons were travelling up the left, or north, bank of the Platte. The Oregon trail lay south of the river; a well-broken route for those days, on which good pasture and company for protection from the Indians were assured… [But Brigham Young] decided that the Mormons would keep north of the Platte, at least until they reached Fort Laramie. They were a peculiarpeople, seeking a place to build a peculiar Zion, and they would go by their own peculiar trail. Thus it came that Brigham broke the "Old Mormon Road" -- now followed mile after mile by the Union Pacific Railroad.”[5]
In the following years, “Brigham Young… was anxiously seeking work projects for his people, especially something that would give them some cash payment. He jumped at the chance to take subcontracts on the two railroads (Union Pacific and Central Pacific), to give his people some work and money… The Mormons had, in fact, helped prepare the roadbed for the Pacific Railroad: in 1856 Congress had appropriated funds for improvement of the Oxbow, Santa Fe, and California-Mormon trails, and Frederick Lander… was appointed chief engineer and field superintendent for improvement of the California-Mormon Trail–the very road that Union Pacific later built upon, in large part. In 1858, shortly after the arrival of Johnston’s Army in Salt Lake Valley, Lander wrote a report to Washington expressing his appreciation for the help he had received from the Mormons in the road improvement project.”[6]
Later, again several years before the railroad was completed, and even before the company that laid the rail had even opened for business, Brigham Young and the Mormons participated in transactions related to the project. “BRIGHAM YOUNG yesterday opened books for subscription to the capital stock of the Union Pacific Railroad Company. He hopes ‘that all who feel able to take shares in the stock of a Company engaging in so great and useful an undertaking, and one so highly beneficial to our isolated Territory, will promptly avail themselves of the opportunity for so doing.’”[7] (It should be noted that the Union Pacific Railroad was first chartered by the Pacific Railway Act of 1862, but did not actually begin operation until October 29, 1863, when the company was officially organized in Boston.)
One must wonder, if the entire body of 10,000 plus Saints had knowledge of, and were making preparations for a move to the Salt Lake Valley as early as spring 1846, why then did only 147 people (142 men, 3 women, and 2 children; according to the church history database available at lds.org) participate in the first wave of pioneers? Could it be that these folks were not yet certain that they were headed to their eventual destination, but rather were filling just another job assignment, contracted by the US government, similar to the Mormon Battalion (The battalion also had a wide disparity in ratio of men to women–approximately 534 men, 33 women, and 51 children)?
Two things are certain: (1) the initial Mormon pioneer company of 1847 was not a collection of families making a final move to a new home, and (2) Winter Quarters remained the location of church head-quarters until spring 1848, when the largest body of Mormons began their trek to the Rocky Mountains.
Further evidence that Brigham Young’s initial pioneer expedition was contracted by the government is the often disputed “American Flag” narratives. Supposedly, the company carried an American flag into Salt Lake Valley and claimed the region for the United States, which, if the stories are true, would indeed be odd behavior for a group that had been constantly harassed by the American government and were now attempting to leave the country.
“On Monday the 26th [1847], President Young and several brethren ascended the summit of a mountain on the north which they named Ensign Peak, a name it has borne ever since. Elder Woodruff was the first to gain the summit of the peak. Here they unfurled the American flag, the Ensign of Liberty to the world. It will be remembered that the country then occupied by the Saints was Mexican soil, and was being taken possession of by the Mormon Battalion and pioneers as a future great commonwealth to the credit and honor of the United States.”[8]
In another account, the pioneers were reported to have made the following proclamation as they arrived atop Ensign Peak: “In raising this flag upon this mountain, which we name Ensign Peak, we take possession of this valley and of all the mountains, lakes, rivers, forests and deserts of this territory in the name of the United states of America and proclaim this land to be the American territory.”[9] (Although, it should be noted that many historians, including those that reported the preceding statements, have doubted that these specific events ever occurred. Some depictions of the event include a different flag that the Mormons themselves created, while other narratives describe a yellow bandana that one of the apostles carried with him. Others yet say that there was no flag at all, but rather the men atop the peak commented that it would be an ideal location to raise an ensign. Due to the varying and contradictory nature of all of these accounts, it’s almost impossible to know for certain what happened onEnsign Peak that day.)
According to the church’s own history library–Besides Young’s tiny group, and the Mormon Battalion, fewer than 1500 pioneers made the journey to Utah in 1847. This later collective consisted of nine individual companies, each of similar size to the first party, which did not depart from Winter Quarters until the end of June. It’s these other 1847 parties that tell the real story of what Brigham Young was thinking when he began the journey westward. The vast majority of these groups were small families–parents from their late 20s to early 40s with school-age children, almost no elderly folk, and very few infants–groups that could move efficiently at a moment’s notice.
Certainly, when Brigham Young knew he had found the “right Place”, he would want a few of his more efficient followers to arrive soon after, in order to prepare settlements for the rest, who would arrive later. But if Young already knew that the Salt Lake Valley was the “right place” before arriving in 1847, why then would he make the next groups wait more than two months before beginning their journey?
By embarking in late June, the following companies would have arrived at the Front Range of the Rocky Mountains, by the time the advance party had descended into Salt Lake Valley. Then, if Young decided that Utah was the place for his little kingdom, they would be close enough to finish the trip, themselves, long before the first winter storms blew in. By that time, those groups would have also been far enough out that, if Young was not pleased with his appraisal of the valley, they could be intercepted, and either turn back to Winter Quarters, or adjust course to follow a contingency route toward Oregon or another potential destination. In effect: Brigham Young was hedging his bets; he did not yet know.
As Wilford Woodruff and Brigham Young drove together into Salt Lake Valley for the first time, “We gazed with wonder and admiration upon the vast rich fertile valley which lay for about 25 miles in length and 16 miles in width Clothed with the Heaviest garb of green vegitation (sic) in the midst of which lay a large lake of Salt water… President Young expressed his full satisfaction in the appearance of the valley as a resting place for the saints and was amply repayed for his journey… After gazing awhile upon the seenery we travled across the table land into the valley 4 miles to the encampment of our Brethren who had arived 2 days before. [-] they had pitched there encampment upon the bank of two small streams of pure water and had commenced plowing. Had broke about 5 acres of ground and commenced planting Potatoes.”[10] What is conspicuous by its absence, in Woodruff’s account of the events of that day, is Brigham Young’s famous pronouncement as they emerged from Emigration Canyon. Did the apostle simply forgetto mention that detail, or did he not think it was noteworthy at the time? If so, one must wonder how Woodruff suddenly remembered the exact quote 33 years later. Did he merely create the event in his own imagination, after the fact?
In conclusion, we may never know for certain when the Mormon prophet stated, “this is the right place,” if he meant that he liked what he saw, and finally decided he had discovered the “right place” to move the Mormon church, or if he was merely acknowledging the fact that they were on course as outlined by government officials. In fact, we may never know if Brigham Young actually said those words at all, since they were first recorded publicly, not by Young himself, but by Wilford Woodruff, three years after Young died.
[1] PBS American Experience – Transcontinental Railroad – Whitney Biography
[2] John J. Stewart, The Iron Trail to the Golden Spike, Salt Lake City, Deseret Book, 1969, chapter 7
[3] Roberts, 5:247-248
[4] Cannon and Knapp, Brigham Young and His Mormon Empire, Fleming H. Revell Company, 1913, chapter 14
[5] Cannon and Knapp
[6] Stewart
[7] “AFFAIRS IN UTAH; The Pacific Railroad in Favor–Brigham Young Opens Books for Subscriptions”, The New York Times, reported from Great Salt Lake City, Nov. 13, 1862, published Dec. 7, 1862
[8] Matthias F. Cowley, Wilford Woodruff: History of His Life and Labors, Salt Lake City, Deseret News, 1909, p. 316
[9] Andrew Jenson, “Historian Gives Account of Ensign Peak”, Salt Lake Tribune, August 1, 1931, p. 4
[10] Wilford Woodruff’s personal diary, July 24, 1847
| When Did Brigham Young And The Mormon Pioneers Really Know That "This Is The Place"? - Part 1
Monday, Jul 25, 2011, at 07:32 AM
Original Author(s): Eric Davis
Topic: PIONEER DAY -Link To MC Article- | ↑ | “When we came out of the canyon into full view of the valley, I turned the side of my carriage around, open to the west, and President Young arose from his bed and took a survey of the country. While gazing on the scene before us, he was enwrapped in vision for several minutes. He had seen the valley before in vision, and upon this occasion he saw the future glory of Zion and of Israel, as they would be, planted in the valleys of these mountains. When the vision had passed, he said: ‘It is enough. This is the right place. Drive on.’”[1]
Who could forget that great day in August 1842 when the prophet, Joseph Smith declared that, “…some of you will live to go and assist in making settlements and build cities and see the saints become a mighty people in the midst of the Rocky Mountains”? Then from that day on, every Latter-day Saint anxiously waited the day when they would leave the Midwest and make their new home in the Salt Lake Valley–Right?
Well, not exactly. As it turns out, that specific prophecy was most likely a forgery, interpolated into the text of a random journal entry, later published in the Documentary History of the Church.[2] It is probable that this “prophecy” was added to the history in 1854, by Joseph’s cousin, and future apostle, George A. Smith, several years AFTER the church was already well established in the Utah Territory. That year, Smith “commenced compiling the History of Joseph Smith from April 1st 1840 to his death on June 27 1844… I had to revise and compare two years of back history… filling up numerous spaces which had been marked as omissions on memoranda by Dr. Richards.”[3] (emphasis added)
First, the entry, dated “Saturday 6”, describes a rather mundane account of Joseph making a visit to Montrose, Iowa, to attend to some Mason business–an odd place to see a revelation on the destiny of the Kingdom of God. Second, the text concerning the Rocky Mountains is in different style handwriting, wedged into the bottom margin of the page–obviously a late addition to the record. And third, if the prophet had been considering moving his congregation west as early as 1842, then there should be more documented evidence of this fact from that time forward. However, not only are historical records eerily silent on the subject of Mormons moving to the Rocky Mountains, during those last years of the saints in Nauvoo, but in fact, quite the opposite can be found.
Another sermon that Joseph Smith supposedly gave was quoted by Wilford Woodruff in General Conference in 1898. Here, Smith is reported to have said, “It is only a little handful of priesthood you see here tonight, but this Church will fill North and South America--it will fill the world." … "It will fill the Rocky Mountains. There will be tens of thousands of Latter-day Saints who will be gathered in the Rocky Mountains… This people will go into the Rocky Mountains; they will there build temples to the Most High.”[4]
The first clue that this prophecy is a fraud is that Woodruff claimed there would be “tens of thousands… in the Rocky Mountains.” If Smith had actually prophesied about the church in the Latter-days, why would he describe numbers only relevant at exactly the moment Wilford Woodruff spoke in 1898? It would be like me giving a talk in church in 2011, and claiming that Joseph Smith once said that someday Utah would be home to nearly two million Mormons. President Woodruff was simply retroactively inventing a self-fulfilling prophecy.
Even after the murder of Joseph and Hyrum, many church leaders were still certain that Nauvoo would be their home to stay. As late as March 5, 1845, Apostle Heber C. Kimball (then second only to Brigham Young in church authority) made the following statement to the Nauvoo congregation: “Some think we shall be driven from Nauvoo; but we are going to stay in Nauvoo and we shall build it up… not many years will pass away before there will be more than one hundred and fifty thousand Bishops to attend to the temporal affairs of the church.”[5] This would indeed be a curious declaration to make if, in fact, church leaders knew Joseph Smith had made multiple prophecies regarding the Rocky Mountains, one of them less than three years prior.
In the sparse instances where migrating west or traveling over the Rocky Mountains is discussed (notably February through March, 1844), locations are vague at best, and never is Salt Lake Valley or the Great Basin mentioned specifically. Church leaders often spoke of raising an Ensign on a mountain peak, reminiscent of Old Testament narratives, but again, no one ever mentions specifically when or where this Ensign will be raised. Judging from the context of this early discourse, “Rocky Mountains” appears to be used simply as a generic term for any or all of the mountainous terrain lying between the Pacific Ocean and Great Plains of North America, without reference to any specific range.
Even when moving to the mountains became a very real probability, following the expulsion from Nauvoo, the apostles were still considering among their potential destinations: California, Oregon, Vancouver Island, and west Texas–all of which are teeming with mountains. Also, in that day, California and Oregon were not limited to their current state boundaries. Those territories encompassed roughly the entire western third of the present day continental United States.
Supposedly, not long after Smith’s murder, Brigham Young fasted and prayed for a time on the subject of where to move the saints. At some point in this ordeal he, “had a vision of Joseph Smith, who showed him the mountain that we now call Ensign Peak, immediately north of Salt Lake City, and there was an ensign fell upon that peak, and Joseph said, ‘Build under the point where the colors fall and you will prosper and have peace.’”[6] The authenticity of this vision, however, is doubtful, in view of the fact that there is no contemporary record of this event ever taking place. It does not even appear in Brigham Young’s own papers. In fact, this sermon by Apostle Smith, in 1869, is the first known report of the event. It should also be noted that George A. Smith was also the man suspected of revising the historical record to include the “Rocky Mountain” prophecy of Joseph Smith.
On September 24, 1845, Brigham Young signed a pledge to leaders of the anti-Mormon mob that the church would leave Nauvoo the following spring for “an anticipated re-settlement in Oregon or on Vancouver Island.” Mormon opposition leaders agreed to the terms on October 1.[7] And in a letter to Samuel Brannan (who was planning to sail to San Francisco with some of the New York saints), dated December 26, 1845, Young stated, “I will say we have not determined to what place we shall go, but shall make a location where we can live in peace.”
Even in 1846, when pressed by his younger brother as to the final destination of the saints, Young offered the following response: “Brother Lorenzo, when we reach the end of our journey I shall know it; AND I DON'T KNOW IT.”[8] It was clear in the minds of the Mormon faithful, that even while stationed at Winter Quarters, a move west was imminent, but it was still not certain where they were going to finally settle. So that brings us back to the original question posed at the top of this article: When did Brigham Young know that, “This (specifically Salt Lake Valley) is the place”? On January 26, 1846, Brigham Young sent correspondence to Jesse C. Little, president of the Eastern States Mission of the church at the time, instructing Little to travel to Washington D.C., and “secretly negotiate army service for 2,000 Mormons to finance exploration of the Great Basin.”[9] “Little journeyed to Washington, arriving on 21 May 1846, just eight days after Congress had declared war on Mexico. Little met with President James K. Polk on 5 June 1846 and urged him to aid migrating Mormon pioneers by employing them to fortify and defend the West.”[10] As part of the negotiations, the Mormons would receive financial assistance if they would be willing to raise at least 500 volunteers to serve the U.S. in the Mexican War. In turn the government would allow the Latter-day Saints to remain on Native American land until they completed their move. Jesse Little and Brigham Young both agreed to the outlined terms, however, “in public sermons Young would insist that the Mormon Battalion was a necessary accommodation to the US president’s threat to annihilate the Mormons if they did not comply.”[11]
A few interesting points arise here. First, I find it curious that Young would “secretly negotiate” with the US Army to finance exploration of the Great Basin. Why did that transaction need to be kept secret? Second, notice that there is no specific mention of the church settling in the Great Basin at this time, only that they sought “exploration” of the region. It’s probable that Young was still undecided about which direction to move, and hoped to gain information to make a more informed decision.
Finally, there is no recorded evidence that any US president ever threatened annihilation against the Mormons. Young’s message was almost certainly nothing more than propaganda to get Mormons to volunteer to serve in the battalion. In fact, Brigham Young himself flip-flopped in his own story, when it came to US government motivations for requesting Mormon troops. To another group of listeners, the call to serve wasn’t a threat, to which Mormon leaders acquiesced. This time, the government was extending a public relations olive branch.
“The President wants to do us good and secure our confidence. The outfit of this five hundred men costs us nothing, and their pay will be sufficient to take their families over the mountains. There is war between Mexico and the United States, to whom California must fall a prey, and if we are the first settlers the old citizens cannot have a Hancock or Missouri pretext to mob the Saints. The thing is from above for our own good.”[12] (It should also be noted here that once again Salt Lake Valley is not specifically cited as the intended destination of the Mormons. Here Brigham Young mentions settling in California, which at the time covered virtually all the land comprising current day: California, Nevada, Utah, Arizona, the Baja peninsula, and portions of New Mexico, Colorado, and Wyoming.)
The earlier “annihilation” threat is one of many examples of anti-government rhetoric spoken by LDS leaders during this period of church history. And during that era, messages spoken in private circles were often quite the opposite of the pandering directed to the public.
But if Brigham Young and the church were so privately anti-America at the time, why would he be so quick to jump into bed with government officials? As it turns out, the reason is money. “Battalion members each received a $42 clothing allowance, paid in advance, for their one-year enlistment. The bulk of this money was contributed immediately to a general Church fund from which wagons, teams, and other necessities for the larger exodus were purchased. Actual wages paid out over the next year (collected frequently by Church messengers) came to nearly $30,000.”[13]
“[G]iven the nature of Church membership in this era–thousands of recent European immigrants and others now bereft of most of their possessions–the Latter-day Saints were largely destitute. If the U.S. government would compensate for their efforts, the Saints would build, then politely abandon, a string of secure shelters on their way out of The United States of America.”[14]
Certainly the mere pittance paid to the Mormon Battalion would hardly cover all the food and supplies needed for, “more than 10,000 Latter-day Saints who congregated along the Missouri and in nearby temporary settlements in the winter of 1846–47.”[15] Brigham Young was quick to jump on any opportunity that would bring his fledgling empire much needed liquid assets, which would aid in the journey westward. It is difficult to imagine that the battalion was the only fund-raising opportunity the church sought out. As mentioned earlier, Young had already sent Jesse Little to Washington to “secretly” drum up financial support from the government, for the Saints’ cause. Would President Polk agree to pay the Mormons for simply building “a string of secure shelters” that others could use on their way to Oregon or California? He might if the Mormons’ work could serve some additional purpose that would also benefit the US government.
[1] Wilford Woodruff, in The Utah Pioneers, Salt Lake City, Deseret News, 1880, 23; quoted in B. H. Roberts, A Comprehensive History of The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints, Century One, 6 vols., Salt Lake City, The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints, 1930, 3:224
[2] vol. D1, p. 1362
[3] Tanner and Tanner, Mormonism – Shadow or Reality, Salt Lake City, ULM, 1987, p. 135; quoted from BYU Studies, summer 1971, p. 470
[4] Woodruff’s 1834 diary confirms circumstantial details he described in 1898, and dates the meeting April 27, 1834. But the diary does not record the substance of Smith’s speech. It is possible that Woodruff invented this quote himself.
[5] Published in the Nauvoo Neighbor, April 7, 1845
[6] George A. Smith, public sermon given June 20, 1869, published in Journal of Discourses, vol. 13, p. 85
[7] D. Michael Quinn, The Mormon Hierarchy: Origins of Power, Salt Lake City, Signature Books, 1994, p. 653
[8] Quoted in Wells, “Brigham Young’s Prevision of the Salt Lake Valley”, p. 58
[9] D. Michael Quinn, The Mormon Hierarchy: Origins of Power, Salt Lake City, Signature Books, 1994, p. 656
[10] Susan Easton Black, “Mormon Battalion”, Utah History Encyclopedia
[11] Quinn
[12] Joseph D. Brown, The Mormon trek west. Garden City, N.Y., Doubleday, 1980, pp. 50–52
[13] The Pioneer Story, Salt Lake City, Intellectual Reserve Inc., 2000
[14] Clayton C. Newell, “America’s Longest March”, The Pioneer Story, Salt Lake City, Intellectual Reserve Inc., 2000
[15] Richard E. Bennett, “Winter Quarters: Church Headquarters, 1846-1848”, Ensign, Salt Lake City, The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints, Sep. 1997
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