Social accommodation in Utah

A collection of papers gathered as the fourth Occasional paper of the University of Utah's American West Center, with a focus on relations of Mormons and non-Mormons in Utah.

AMERICAN WEST CENTER Occasional Papers University of Utah Salt Lake City, Utah SOCIAL ACCOMMODATION IN UTAH Clark Knowlton, Editor Director, Social Research & Development American West Center Occasional Paners ~ ... University of Utah Salt Lake City, Utah 1975 L.\ \ SOCIAL ACCOMMODATION IN UTAH TABLE OF CONTENTS Introduction. Social Accommodation: A Personal View by Clark S. Knowlton ..................•.................... 1 The Secularization of the Utah Labor Movement by J. Kenneth. Davies. . . . . . . • . . . . . . . . . • . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . • . . 19 The Second Gathering: The New Migrants to Utah by John L. Sorenson .................. o........ 65 o............... 71 Public Schools as a Vehicle of Social Accommodation in Utah: The Strangers Within our Gates by Frederick S. Buchanan and Raymond G. Briscoe............ 98 A Test of Faith: Jane Elizabeth James and the Origins of the Utah Black Community by Henry J. l-ifolfinger. . . . . . • . . . • . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . • . . . . . . . . . . 126 QI •••••••••••• The Cradlebaugh Court (1859) : A Study in Early Mormon-Gentile Misunderstanding by Davis Bitton ............................ INTRODUCTION SOCIAL ACCOMMODATION; A l?ERSONAL VIEW Clark S. Knowlton University of Utah_ In the fall of 1947, as a graduate student in Sociology at Brigham Young University, I was nervously engaged in the task of selecting a thesis topic acceptable to my graduate committee. As I had always been deeply interested in Mormon history, culture and society, I decided to work out a tentative research problem in this general area. I had heard much about the compromise between Mormons and the Federal Government which had brought about an end to systematic Mormon and non-Mormon hostiiity, enabled Utah to become a state, terminated Federal proscription of the Mormon Church, and ended polygamy and the Mormon cooperative economic system. It seemed possible that an acceptable research proposal could be formulated on some aspect of this subject. Before submitting my ideas to my graduate committee, I decided to test them on several prominent Mormons and non-Mormons who seemed to be in a position to know something about the actual development of the compromise. To my astonishment, I was sharply warned away from the subj,ect by both Mormons and non-Mormons. The time had not yet arrived, they said, for a dispassionate treatment of Mormon and non-Mormon relationships in Utah. My informants seemed to feel that 2 social scientists working in what was to them still a controversial area might open scarcely-healed wounds. Baffled, I finally decided to study social change in a Mormon rural community. As the shadows of Mormon history lay deep over my childhood and adolescence, these experiences had a traumatic impact on me. My parents had related stories of family members who had lived through the Missouri persecutions, Nauvoo, the crossing of the plains, the Utah War, the hardships and difficulties of pioneer existence, and the impact of non-Mormon hostility and anti-Mormon legislation. To me, Mormon history was not an abstract, remote topic taught in seminary or college classes but something very personal that had involved my family for several generations. The thought that I could not freely study the colorful, complex and tragic history of my own people was more than I could accept. It was with considerable relief that I obtained a scholarship for advanced graduate study at Vanderbilt University in Nashville, Tennessee, and left Utah in the spring of 1948. The several years I spent at Vanderbilt were very stimulating. I came into contact with faculty memb.ers who were as passionately committed to the South as I had been to the Mormon people. Under their guidance, I took courses in Southern history, culture, literature, demography, ecology, rural sociology, and related fields. These men made no attempt to conceal the fact that they placed the South before the nation· as a whole. In and out of class they were willing to eloquently discuss the past, present, and the future of the South. 3 I could not help but contrast their emotion, commitment, openness, and deep concern for the South with what seemed to be the timidity, evasiveness, and apparent unwillingness of many Mormon and nonMormon scholars in·Utah to come to grips with the fundamental issues of Mormon history, and of Utah hi.story, as well. After completion of course requirements for my Ph.D., and the research for my doctoral dissertation which necessitated an extended residence in Brazil, I accepted a teaching position in 1952 at Georgia Southern College in Statesboro, Georgia. My wife and I came to feel quite at home in Statesboro; like the Mormon people we had known at home, the local rural and small town residents of Statesboro enjoyed religious discussions, shared a deep concern for moral values, and were family~oriented. Not being stereotyped as Yankees, we soon came integrated into the local community. b~­ As the only Mormon family in Statesboro, we became token Mormons; both of us were constantly speaking to Protestant Sunday School classes about Mormon history, culture, and doctrine. We became even more conscious of our Mormon heritage than we were before. The only disturbing feature about our life in Georgia was the unwillingness of our Georgia friends to discuss openly the racial issue and its impact upon Southern culture, similar to Utah evasiveness about Mormon-non-Mormon relationships. We came to comprehend that people do not like to discuss subjects that may cause pain or guilt or reveal what many prefer to conceal. 4 As we crossed and recrossed New Mexico on our travels between Georgia and Utah, we found ourselves gradually spending more time there than anywhere else on the road. Being fascinated by northern New Mexico, and reluctantly having to leave Georgia for family health reasons, I applied for and secured a job at New Mexico Highlands University in Las Vegas, New Mexico. There we found a cultural world quite distinct from that of Georgia. Northern New Mexico, inhabited by three very vigorous ethnic and racial subgroupings--the dominant Anglo-Americans, the Spanish Americans, and the American Indians--has witnessed considerable ethnic and racial conflict and acconnnodation. Relationships between the three groupings are governed by ever-changing and subtle social, cultural and economic patterns of interaction and dominance that in some ways remind one of the patterns of interaction between Mormons and non~Mormons in Utah. I soon became quite involved with American Indian and Mexican American students. Several of us on the faculty of Highl~nds Univer- sity assisted the Indian students in organizing an American Indian student club that soon became a focus for the social life of Indian students on campus. The club raised funds for scholarships, provided counseling services, and mediated between Indian students, the university administration and faculty, the Bureau of Indian Affairs, and tribal and pueblo governments. difficulties. It also defended Indian students in As sponsor of the club, I became increasingly aware of the substantial tribal and pueblo differences in personality, cultural 5 values, behavior patterns, and degree of familiarity with AngloAmerican and Spanish American culture. My classes at New Mexico Highlands University had from 40 to 65 percent Spanish American enrollment.. The majority of my Spanish American students were timid, insecure, poor, eager to learn, openminded, receptive--and very fragile. Although many spoke English well, most of them suffered from language difficulties that severely handicapped their ability to survive in a hostile, academic environment which favored Anglo-American students over Spanish American and American Indian students. Needing financial assistance, counseling, academic encouragement and, above all, simple respect, affection, and acceptance by faculty and administration which was seldom forthcoming, large numbers dropped out. As I had lived in Latin America and spoke Spanish, it was inevitable that I began to identify with them. In Las Vegas, our family became immersed in the talented, diversified, and ever~fascinating Spanish American community. Most of our close friends, except for faculty members, were Spanish Americans. Unknowingly, we had crossed the subtle lines of prejudice and discrimination in Las Vegas maintained by many elements of the dominant AngloAmerican community. some rather powerful We found that we were never quite accepted by Anglo-American families in the community who defined us as "Spanish American lovers." Through working among the American Indians and Spanish Americans in Las Vegas, I gained certain insights about Mormon and non-Mormon 6 relationships in Utah. I.t seemed to me., as I considered it from my Ne.w Mexico vantage. point, that the Mormons in reality are. a minority people on the national scale.. Respected by many Americans, regarded as a little odd by other Americans, the Mormons struggled at times· to be "Super Americans." They accepted certain American political and economic values at a time when these values were coming increasingly under critical scrutiny by many scholars, intellectuals, and political leaders. Never quite secure in their Am.ericanness, the Mormons have perhaps never been fully accepted by Americans in general. Thus, defining the Mormons as a minority helped me understand much about Mormon history that had been puzzling me. The 1960' s brought anti-pove.rty programs into New Mexico; it was inevitable that the few social scientists residing in New Mexico, such as myself, would become involved in program development and implementation. Although President Eisenhower's White House Conference on Aging was not an anti-poverty program, strictly speaking, it did make people aware of the existence of poverty among the older population and brought together many persons for the first time who would later become involved in anti-poverty programs. It was my good fortune to serve on the San Miguel County White House Conference on Aging Committee; later I was called to be chairman of the state editorial committee responsible for drafting reports on the needs and socioeconomic characteristics of New Mexico's senior citizens. One day when the members of the editorial committee were seated 7 in a room in the state capitol, we b.egan di.scus.sing the o.rganization of the New Mexican Reports on Aging. I s.uggested to the committee that wh.ile older people among all the different ethnic and raci(ll groups in New Mexico had connnon socioeconomic problems--such as low income, inadequate housing and diet, and lack of medical care--the senior citizens among the Spanish Americans and American Indians seemed to suffer from some unique disadvantages related to cultural and linguistic differences, isolation from the dominant Anglo-American culture, and possible discrimination. I suggested, therefore, that perhaps we ought to consider developing a general section devoted to common socioeconomic problems of all the older residents and then formulate sections built around the unique socioeconomic and cultural situation of the American Indians and Spanish Americans. I was rather surprised to note a general acceptace of the suggestion about the Americ.an Indians, but a strange reluctance to consider the creation of such a section for the Spanish Americans. The governor's appointed chairman of the White House Conference on Aging left the room and returned shortly to say that the state administration felt it best not to use the term "Spanish American" in the reports or even to imply that the older Spanish Americans might in any way differ frow aging Anglo-Americans in similar socioeconomic circumstances •. Somewhat stunned, I realized that I was facing the same situation here that I had encountered earlier in Utah. Sardon- ically, I silently noted that members of the governor's staff used 8 almost the same expressions as my Mormon and non-Mormon friends in Utah about the dangers of arousing controversy. Later on when I asked for more specific reasons why we should define the Spanish Americans as "non people,n I was told that the administration did not want to stir up controversy by admitting that the Spanish Americans might in any'way be different from the Anglo-Americans. As it seemed apparent that few Anglo-Americans in New Mexico were aware of the severe economic, educational, social, and cultural problems confronting the Spanish Americans in New Mexico, several of us decided to break the "conspiracy of silence" and openly call attention to the existence of discrimination, extreme poverty, mass out-migration, severe land loss, and growing unrest among the Spanish Americans in scholarly papers, public addresses, and media statements. As could be expected, we were sharply criticized by persons in politics and business, and professional Anglo-Americans and many Spanish Americans, as well. As all this began, I was serving as chairman of the San Miguel County Area Development Committee and of the Committee for the Economic and Social Development of Northern New Mexico. Both committees had come into existence in response to the first national anti-poverty program; the Area Redevelopment Program sponsored by the Kennedy administration. Committees organized under this program were first to explore the fundamental causes of poverty in their counties and regions, and then to come up with recommended programs to improve the situation. 9 These reports.,..,,,_a preliminary report and a final report-.,...,were to be sent to the Department of Commerce, the agency in charge of the Area Redevelopment Committee .. Our local committee developed an advisory technical panel containing representation from all of the federal and most of the state departments and agencies involved in administering government programs on our county. Me.mbe:rs of the committee we.re drawn from business, farming, ranching, and professional circles within the county as well as from the poor themselves. Data provided by the technical panel and the committee were combined in a preliminary report that mentioned land loss and loss of access to local natural resources as a major source of poverty among the Spanish American people. Therefore, among our recommendations was one,...-a relatively harm.less one, we thought--that the Federal Government buy up large ranches as they came on the market, divide them into smaller units, and sell them to qualified Spanish Americans under feasible financial arrangements. It should be mentioned that most of the ranching and farming lands in the County of San Miguel had once belonged to the Spanish Americans. Much of it had been lost to them because of high land taxes, ignorance of Anglo-American law, and outright fraud and legal manipulation. out the state.. This recommendation aroused controversy through- Anglo-American ranchers in several counties mounted an attack upon our committee, boycotting Las Vegas businesses and banks owned by members of the committee. They also demanded that I 10 resign from the chairmanship of the committee, and that the New Mexico Highlands University fire me. cans sprang to our defense. Needless to say, Spanish Ameri- The unrest and ethnic controversy feared by the members of the governor's staff had become a reality. Al- though I was not fired, my familyts health began to suffer under the mounting tensions, and I decided to leave Las Vegas, New Mexico for El Paso, Texas to become ch.airman of the Department of Sociology at the University of Texas in El Paso. It was in New Mexico and West Texas that I finally came to terms with my experiences in Utah. Through working for over ten years with Spanish Americans in New Mexico and Mexican Americans in El Paso, I gained an insight into Mormon and non-Mormon relationships in Utah that I had never possessed before. I had come to understand that most people simply do not want social scientists or anyone else reviving painful memories of a past that many have tried to forget. For the sake of temporary peace, people prefer to ignore evidence of growing unrest and possible future conflicts. the ostrich in all of us. There is an element of Above all, I learned that people do not want anyone to shatter the image they have created about themselves, their history, and their role in the larger society. Moving from rural New Mexico to urban El Paso, which is the second poorest city in the United States and which contains some of the largest Mexican American slums in the Southwest, was a factor which greatly broadened my understanding of Mexican American history 11 and culture. In El Paso, i became involved in programs to reduce juvenile delinquency and adolescent gang warfare in the Mexican American slums, and also helped to organize anti-poverty programs for tenement dwellers.. The border between the United States and Mexico also interested me greatly, and I spent many days exploring complex forms of Mexican, Mexican American and Anglo-American social interaction across the border. During my residence in El Paso, my interests and activities in New Mexico did not diminish. The growing crescendo of conflict, hostility and heightened Spanish American and Anglo-American polarization over the land grants and other areas of Spanish American unrest centered in the Alianza Federal de Mercedes (The Federal Alliance of Land Grantees), the most important Spanish American organization of the 1960s. As an advocate of programs designed to diminish Spanish American unrest, I was inevitably drawn in as a mediator. In 1968, I was offered a position in the Department of Sociology at the University of Utah, and with great reluctance at leaving the Southwest decided to accept it. Thus, I returned to Utah after an absence of some twenty years. I had made almost no effort to remain informed about Mormon or regional studies in the state. My first impression was that Salt Lake City had lost its once unique identity that had placed it as a city with a definite urban personality in the same category as Santa Fe, New Orleans and San Francisco. I was impressed by the rapid 12 speed with which Salt Lake Ci.ty had destroyed many of i,.ts historical buildings, sprawled unplanned across the landscape, and had acquired in a few short. years most of the urban problems that had required eastern and far western cities a hundred or more years to develop. Nonetheless, it was good to return to "Zion." One of the greatest differences between the Utah I had left and the Utah to which I returned was the formation of a large group Mormon scholars interested in exploring all aspects of the Mormon experience. Although they may have lacked the passion and color of my Vanderbilt faculty, th~y had the same commitment to a people and to a region that my Vanderbilt teachers possessed. 1 was quite impressed to learn that the old barriers that had once inhibited my research had almost vanished. It now seemed possible to study what could not have been studied twenty years before. As my old interest in the multiple levels of Mormon-non-Mormon conflict and social accommodation in Utah revived, I was gratified to find that my interest in this subject was shared by many Mormon and non-Mormon faculty members at the Utah universities. Old friendships were strengthened and new ones developed, and a small group of faculty members consisting primarily of Drs. S. Lyman Tyler.and Davis Bitton of the University of Utah,. Gordon Harrington of Weber College, and John L. Sorenson of Brigham Young University came together to discuss the formation of a research and publication. program focusing upon conflict and accommodation between Mormons and non-Mormons, and between 13 majority and minority groups in Utah. It was noted that with the rise of a new generation of historians interested in Mormon history the suoject was flourishing. The expansion of Mormon historical studies both in terms of quanti.ty and quality has been impressive.. Unfortunately, it has not been matched by an equal growth in other social science disciplines. It was therefore felt that perhaps our little group could develop an area of study to which scholars working in all the social science disciplines could contribute. A search for an adequate mechanism for panel discussions, paperreading sessions and research and publication on the various aspects of the accommodation process led us to approach the officials of the Utah Academy of Arts and Sciences to inquire if they would permit us to organize sessions on accommodation at their semi-annual meetings. They encouraged us to do so~ The articles presented here are the product, for the most part, of the first several sessions. They are reproduced largely as they were prepared for group presentation. It is hoped that papers presented at subsequent programs of the Utah Academy of Arts and Sciences will also be published. In the first paper of this series, Kenneth Davies explores an important but little known aspect of the accommodation process in Utah--the rise of the Utah labor movement and its secularization. He points out that Mormon workers migrating to Utah from Nauvoo brought craft guilds with them. In Utah, the activities of these guilds were 14 encouraged by Mormon leadersh.ip. These guilds flourished duri.ng good times and almost pert.shed during recessions. The coming of the railroad in 1869 brought to Utah numerous non~Mormon workers in search of employment and facilitated the rise of a hard-rock mining industry composed of non-Mormon workers and owners. As these workers joined existing, and largely Mormon, craft organizations and formed new ones, the labor movement in Utah became less and less amenable to suggestions from Mormon leaders. Many of the local guilds and unions joined the Knights of Labor, the first major national labor organization in the 1880s. Caught in the growing conflict between Mormons and non-Mormons, the Knights of Labor tended to take an anti~Mormon stance, thus creating strain between Mormon and non-Mormon workers and between the Knights of Labor and the ChurGh. As the Mormon Church abandoned responsibility for the central economic development and planning for Utah, non-Mormon capital came to dominate economic activities. The local unions, whether led by Mormons or non-Mormons, became almost totally secularized. John L. Sorenson, in the second paper of the series, discusses an interesting on-going, middle~class migration into the Wasatch Front. Most of these persons were nostalgic migrants who were born in the region but who left for economic, career, or educational reasons. Reaching a point in their lives when they are economically able, people who fit Sorenson's description return home for religious, social, family or personal reasons. Not fully aware of the extent to 15 which they have been in;Eluenced by their experiences outside of; Utah, they then become somewhat disillusi.oned with the local social and cultural environment.. They discover what Thomas Wolf wrote--that one can never completely return home again because in one's absence home has changed, and one's own personal and family expectations have also changed. Sorenson believes that this type of migration, especially from California, will increase sharply in the future as former Utahns return to escape undesirable social pathology in the urban areas in which they are now living. In time, he believes that these migrants could bring about considerable institutional and social change in Utah. In the third paper of the series, Davis Bitton utilizes an incident at the close of the Utah War between an anti·-Mormon federal judge, John Cradlebaugh, and his military escort, and their adversaries, the local officials and inhabitants of the Mormon community of Provo to demonstrate the need for accommodation. The article illuminates the fears, insecurities, and mistrust that bedeviled relations between the Mormons and the Government. The Mormons were deeply troubled by traumatic memories of the Missouri and Illinois persecutions and strong-rooted resentments against a Federal Government that not only refused to protect them in the Midwest but also sent an army against them in Utah as well as a federal judiciary determined to convict Mormons believed to be guilty of disloyalty and of serious violations of federal laws. 16 Bitton points out the considerable con:Uict that developed among federal of fi.cials :;in Utah. over the positi.o.n that the Federal Government and its representatives in the terri.torial government of Utah should assume toward the Mormon population. The federal judges who were embittered by their inability to persuade Mormon juries to convict fellow Mormons; army officers who were highly suspicious of Mormon loyalties and felt that the Mormons ought to be punished for what they defined as acts of rebellion; and the territorial governor and federal attorney who believed that the Mormons should be conciliated and their loyalty toward the federal government strengthened by kind treatment could not agree on the policy that the federal officials in Utah should follow toward the Mormon leaders and their followers. Although the hostile federal judges were eventually replaced, the army officers admonished to stay out of territorial affairs, and the territorial governor sustained, local and national resentments and mistrust were too great to be accommodated, and conflict persisted between Mormons and non-Mormons throughout the last decades of the nineteenth century. In Utah, as in any state where a large majority of the population shares a common religious or cultural heritage, it is inevitable that minorities with different cultural heritages will come under social pressures to conform or to accept the dominant value system. It is also inevitable that this dominant value system will pervade the 17 public institutions of the state. Members of minority groups may accept this value system and conform to it in their public behavior, or they may strongly exert a counter religious or cultural identity and protest their minority status. Thus it is to be expected that Frederick S. Buchanan and Raymond G. Briscoe, in their sample of Mormon and non-Mormon school children and their parents along the Wasatch Front, should find that a majority of Mormons believes that little religious discrimination exists in the public school systems of Utah, while a significant percentage of non-Mormons is convinced that their children do suffer some discrimination in the schools from Mormon school children and Mormon teachers. How much this discrimination is a product of the fact that whenever a majority of students and teachers share a common value system, students not sharing this value system may feel excluded, and how much it is due to deliberate discrimination is a question that needs further exploration. At any rate, the fact that many non-Mormon parents and their children do feel discriminated against in the Utah public school systems is cause of concern because such believed or actual discrimination may lead to social hostilities. Very little scholarly attention has ever been devoted to the Mormon Black community of Utah: its origins, the lives of its members, their socioeconomic characteristics, their relationships with non-Mormon Blacks as well as with Mormon whites, and the growth or decline of their numbers over the years. In the last paper of the series, Henry J. Wolf- inger discusses the origin and characteristics of the early pioneer 18 Mormon Black community in the Salt Lake City area as reflected through the life of a Black woman. She joined the L.D.S. Church in Connecti- cut, moved to Nauvoo, and worked as a servant in Joseph Smith's household. She then migrated to Utah with her family, reared her children with fluctuating economic fortunes and, although frustrated at the Church's policy of refusing Blacks the priesthood, lived and died a faithful member of the Church. It is to be hoped that Wolfinger's significant paper willcattract the attention of other scholars to this intriguing group. This collection of disparate studies on diverse aspects of the accommodation process in Utah could be the beginning of a series of studies of this central theme of Utah history. However, it is well to remind ourselves now that Utah is home not only to English-speaking, white Mormons and non-Mormons but also to increasing numbers of Indians, Mexican Americans, Asian Americans, and Blacks. Am~rican Furthermore, as Utah has become secularized it has also become quite diversified in terms of social class, occupations, interest gcoups, political beliefs and ideologies, and social structure. The processes of conflict, ad- justment and accommodation between the varied social groupings in Utah are an important part of the social life of the state. The time has come for scholars to address themselves to the study of these everchanging human relationships that are occurring in what continues to be a fascinating State. (The papers that appear in this series are not to be quoted without permission of their particular authors.) THE SECULARIZATION OF THE UTAH LABOR MOVEMENT J. Kenneth Davies Brigham Young University The pioneers of 1847 brought with them from Nauvoo not only a strong religious faith but also experiences with the budding unionism of that day, a development whose roots were in the trade union movement of England. The Guild Inheritance from Nauvoo A number of craft guilds--the Tailors, Smiths, Boot and Har. 2 , an d Actors 3-- h a d ness Mak ers, Coopers, Wagon Ma k ers 1 , Printers previously been established in Nauvoo. Robert Flanders reports 4 that the guild of Boot and Shoe Makers, established in Nauvoo in 1843, was not well received by many residents who feared that it was established to create a monopoly in shoemaking and thus would force prices higher. The Shoe Makers responded to this fear in the Nauvoo Neighbor, stating that they were attempting to bring the high prices down through the establishment of a producers' cooperative with increased buying power in the purchase of raw materials. Their aim, they wrote, was to make their facilities competitive with those in the East. The Boot and Shoe Makers were willing to barter and hoped to bring employment to two hundred of their craft. Their dedication to uniting is shown by quoting the Glasgow spinners that "the 20 working man's only protection ..• is Union •.. Union walls are high and grand --urdotr wal:ls are -nobly manned----Union walls are made to stang against the strongest Foe The next year a spinners' and consumers' cooperative was established. Joseph Smith commented that the cooperative was a good idea and would be the source of employment for mechanics as well as of securing consumer items at a low cost. 6 The Deseret Dramatic Association On February 20, 1852, a group of Latter-day Saints met at the home of William Clayton at the request of Brigham Young to form an Association to promote the theatre in Salt Lake City. 7 While the Association may not have been intended to become a union, and indeed may never have actually become such, it did lead the way be becoming the precursor of such union organizations as the Actor's Guild and Stage Employee's Union. The charter membership·included such prominent pioneers as William Pitt, William Clayton, Robert Campbell, Horace K. Whitney, and Orson Whitney. Of the original group of thirteen men, at least four became associated in other guild-type organizations. them were affiliated with the Typographers. Three of As members of the Deseret Dramatic Association were added over the years, 15-20 percent . 8 of them were also associated with other guilds. The first recorded concerted action of the Association, outside 21 of putting on dramatic productions, was the petitioning for the use of the Tabernacle for performances since the old Bowery was considered inadequate. While the request was turned down, Brigham Young appointed an architect to draw up plans for the Social Hall, a much finer facility than the Association had planned on.9 The Association went into a decline in 1855-60, possibly due to the economic recession of those years. 10 However, on March 9, 1861, a meeting was held in Brigham Young's office to reconstitute the . . . d on t h e reorganization. . . 1111 Association and to get h.is " min By 1864, the Social Hall had been replaced by the Salt Lake Theater, and the inflation associated with the Civil War had begun to take its toll. Association members were in the unpaid employ of Brigham Young, the owner of the theater. However, visiting performers were paid. On April 30, 1864, Brigham Young conducted a meeting of the Association. Several members indicated financial problems and requested pay for their services. If they did not receive payment, they said, they would have to leave. Annie Adams Kiskadden, mother of the famous Maude Adams, later reported about the meeting: Brigham spoke and said we were only doing our share for the uplift of the community as were elders and missionaries ... only our work, he said, was being done at home. We were asked to state our demand individually, but there was a deep silence. No one made demands on Brigham Young ..•. The chief agitators were silent ...• Finally David Evans in the orchestra and a shoemaker by trade, pulled his crippled frame up on crutches and hit out straight from the shoulder. He said we were all forced to earn our daily bread outside the theatre and yet we were giving half our lives to it. He told 22 Brigham that the theatre was making oodles of money and he could not see why the entertainers should not share in the profits • .•• The intimation was plain. It was 'no pay, no work.' Brigham tried every means and every plan to settle the matter without putting the home-talent players on salary, but none of the plans suited the actors and grumbling grew louder with the final result that a salary list was drawn up. No one could say that the salaries were magnificently large, but it comforted us to know that we were worth something. The Association apparently died away between 1869 and 1874. If it lasted as long as 1874 it was probably the victim of the depression then in progress, as were many other unions and worker organizations throughout the territory and country. It may have also been a victim of the Retrenchment of 1869 or the new economic experiment of Brigham Young, the United Order movement of 1874. Henry McEwan, who played a key role in the Deseret Typographical Association and who was, in 1868, the first president of the Deseret Typographical Union, Local 115, was a member of the Deseret Dramatic Association in the 1860s. The Deseret Typographers The first known permanent craft guild in Utah, which was also the first known guild to evolve into a full-fledged labor union, was established at least by February 24, 1852 when Brigham Young An nua 1 P rinters . Festiva . 1 wit · h prayer. l3 • attend e d and opene d t h e F irst This was the same year the National Typographical Union, America's first permanent national union, was formed. Apparently the Printers' 23 guild was successor to a similar organization of printers in Nauvoo. It was a unique craft guild, motivated at its outset more strongly by religious ideals than economic goals. ref~rm However, considering the nature of much of the worker movement previous to and con- temporary with that period, it was not quite as strange as it might seem today. Nevertheless, this union was undoubtedly the only guild in the world to open its meeting with the song, "Come All Ye Sons of Zion," and with non-alcoholic toasts to "The First Presidency," the "Deseret Manufacturers," and 11 . 14 The Printers of Utah." On January 13, 1855, a more formalized Typographical Association of Deseret was organized. To be a member of this unique assoc- iation one must also be a member of the Church in good standing, and Association members could be expelled for immoral conduct after an impartial trial and a two-thirds vote. Involved in the Associa- tion were such prominent men as George Q. Cannon, later a member of the First Presidency of the Church; William W. Phelps, famed Mormon printer and poet; Horace K. Whitney, prominent L.D.S. musician; and Brigham Young's brother Phineas H. Young, a Church leader in his own right. Phineas Young became the first president of the Association. 15 Other General Authorities--Ezra Taft Benson, Jedediah M. Grant, Erastus Snow, Albert Carrington, Orson Pratt, Amasa Lyman, and Wilford Woodruff--played key roles in the Association over the next few years. In 1856 the requirement of Church membership was evi- dently dropped and the name changed to the Deseret Typographical 24 16 . . and P ress Asso.ciat1on. In 1861 the Typographical Association, with Henry McEwan at its head, marched in the Fourth of July parade in Salt Lake City with a scroll inscription, "The Printers of Deseret." 17 In 1868 the Deseret Typographical Association, Local 115, was chartered by the National Typographical Association, with Henry McEwan as president of the local. 18 At least eight of the ten charter members were endowed members of the Church. 1 9 Other Organization by Crafts or Trades The unique interests of workers other than the typographers and theater employees were recognized rather early. At the Fourth of July parade of 1861, groups of workers participated by marching with the others in their trades. 20 Fortunately for the labor his- torian, the event was recorded in some detail by the Deseret News. The parade had three interwoven and recurring themes. strong religious overtones with such banners as: There were "Zion's Bulwark" (youth), "Mothers in Israel, teach us how to be great," "Purity bringeth Peace," "Virtue adorns Zion," "Kingdom of God or nothing," "In God is Our Trust," etc. patriotism. The second great general theme was Slogans and signs included: "Columbia," "Utah, the Nation's Hope," "Liberty, Union and Virtue," "Good for the Constitution," and platoons of soldiers, sailors, cadets, and midshipmen, as well as a group of Typographers sang patriotic songs. The third 25 general theme was the economy. In keeping with this theme, workmen marched in groups with their fellow craftsmen or tradesmen. was led by a prominent member of the trade. Each The craftsmen carried banners, most of which had religious, patriotic or economic implications. At least twenty of these groups of tradesmen had organized into unions across the nation by 1860, many in the decade of the 1850s. Most of the other trades were to organize into unions within two decades. As already stated, a number of these crafts had prev- iously been organized in Nauvoo, and some had experienced a substantial period of craft organization. Three of the leaders had been associated in the Dramatic Association and two in the Typographical Association. Several of the trades carried banners, which would seem to be even stronger evidence of union or formal organization approaching them: 1. The Printers, or Typographical Association, carried a banner which read, "Printers of Deseret." While this appellation may not be too conclusive of union organization, the fact that it was led by a former Scotsman, Henry McEwan, who was to be a charter member and in 1868 the first president of the Deseret Typographical Association, Local 115, indicates some movement in that direction. In addition, his father had been active in a union-like workers' Mutual Benefit Association in Great Britain in the 1850s. 26 2. The Blacksmiths, led by Jonathan Pugmire formerly of Carlisle, England, marched under the banner, "The Sons of Vulcan." The United Sons of Vulcan, a national union, was organized as a local in a Pittsburgh iron mill in 1858, and adopted a constitution and by-laws in 1861. A more general GOnstitution was adopted in 1862. It would appear that Utah Territory may have been a leader, if transient, in the organization of this craft. 3. The Tinsmiths and Coppersmiths, led by Dustin Amy, carried the banner, "True to the Constitution and Union." Whether the word "Union" referrred to the union of states or to labor unions is not known, but the Smith trades were among the earlier national trade unions as well as among the earlier known unions of Utah. 4. slogan: The Carpenters and Joiners broadcast a typical union "Union is Strength." The inclusion of these two trades is indicative of at least a philosophical association with the Amalgamated Carpenters and Joiners, an English-based union formally established about 1860 but not coming to the United States for another decade. It is interesting to note that the leader of this group, Miles Romner, formerly of Dalton, England, had just recently returned from a mission to England. Just as capital goods and ideas, as well as the knowledge of cooperatives were brought home by returning missionaries, so is it possible that the idea of a "union" was also brought home. 5. The Coopers, led by Abel Lamb formerly of Rowe, Massachusetts, 27 claimed that "United in These Bands we Stand." This trade had been organized around the country since the early 1800s. 6. The Painters and Glaziers, led by Edward Martin formerly of Preston, England, had emblazoned "United Painters," a common terminology within the labor movement. 7. The Boot and Shoemakers, led by Edward Snelgrove formerly of St. Mary's, England, had two banners indicating a strong group cohesiveness and possible union organization. One of the banners read, nMay the True Sons of St. Crispin Ever Feel an Interest in the Soles of All Mankind." In 1864 in Milford, Massachusetts, a local union called the Knights of St. Crispin was organized and was credited as the first local of the national union, with the first lodge established in Milwaukee in 1867. The idea, if not the actual organization, in Utah seems to antedate that of the rest of the country. The use of the adjective "true" may have been an attempt to differentiate Deseret's shoemakers from those elsewhere. 8. At least one of the leaders, Charles Lambert who was the leader of the stonecutters and a convert from England, had union experience in England where he had been a member of a "Mechanics Institute" and an "Operative Society." at least one strike. He also had participated in 22 All of the above were Church members, and of the fifty listed trade leaders in this parade at least thirty-five (70 percent) were 28 members of the Church at the time. A substantial number of these, thirty, were endowed members and the other five were soon to be en<lowed. Five were definitely not members of the Church, but one of these joined later~ 2 3 Of the group of fifty trades in the 1861 parade, only ten were represented again in the 1869 parade, though the New Mechanics Union probably represented the building trades which were prominent in the 1861 parade. In addition to the Mechanics, there were five other new crafts or trades in 1869. 24 Labor Strife and the Break in Church Encouragement The 1850s and early 1860s saw general Church support of the budding union movement in Utah. Brigham Young had actively encoura- ged the organization of at least two worker guilds, the theater workers and the printers. In 1855 he said: The capitalists and mighty men of the earth should notify the Lord that he made a mistake when forming the balance of the human family, and petition that they be made with bones of iron, sinews, nerves, ligaments and muscles of steei, and flesh of brass. Then they could labor for them without food, rest, or shelter, and would not have to answer for not 'multiplying and replenishing the earth'; neither would the magnates then have to account for the terrible oppression they are meting out to their fellows, often depriving them of the enjoyment even of the pure air and light of heaven and of the pure water of earth, of the privilege of properly raising families, of the necessary society of friends, of all or nearly all chances for mental improvement, crushing them down to constant physical work and toil, with little or no remuneration. For this cause we suggest to the corrupt wealthy of the world that they consider and practice upon the idea that their fellow beings are flesh and blood like themselves, that they have a right 29 to a fair share of the bounties bestowed by a kind creator, and cease using human beings as though they were made of iron, steel, and brass. But lest this suggestion should not be followed, it would certainly seem far better than dragging out a miserable existence in bloated cities and districts where labor is abundant and element monopolized, for the poor to constantly plan a scheme to free themselves from the trammels which bind them, and go forth to the wide west where labor meets its reward, and element is free and abundant. And when a portion are free, let them not be unmindful of the pit from which they have escaped, and, instead of siding with the oppressor so soon as they are prospered, lend all the aid in their power to enable the down trodden to obtain the same vantage ground they have achieved. 25 Under strong Church encouragement, worker organization in Deseret was keeping pace with the budding locally oriented unionism of the rest of the country, perhaps originally being organized for fraternal purposes, but with several groups evolving into union-like organizations. However, the war years 1861-65 brought great economic pressure on the workmen of Zion, as well as on workers throughout the country. The "uprising" of the Deseret Dramatic Association in April of 1864 was not the only inflation-induced difficulty. The August 3, 1864 Deseret News editorial, referring to the high prices of that year, implied that a strike was imminent. The upshot was a convention called by the Church leadership to do something about prices. At this meeting, worker representatives were allowed to express themselves and out of it came a system of price regulation which apparently calmed the troubled waters. 30 Probably more important in controlling wages than the price regulation in Utah was the collapse of prices nationally. On Feb- ruary 1 of the following year, the. News. reported that a sufficiency of breadstuffs protected laborers and mechanics from injustice, and • tha t cond 1• t ions of ' T- wor~ • • 26 were 1.mproving. The fact that workers were admonished again to refrain from strikes, however, indicates that unionism or at least collective action was making gains. In 1866 high wages were still a common complaint. 27 It was felt that high wages made it difficult for Utah's production to compete with goods from other states and territories. This assumed Gentile importers rather than Mormon craftsmen, thus retarding the balanced economic develop~ent of Mormondom. Deseret was still ap- parently far from being economically independent from the rest of the country. On May 27, 1868, the News recognized the growing conflict between capital and labor and appealed for a Christian approach to its resolution: Throughout the world there is a struggle for power and supremacy between capital and labor. Capital seeks to have labor helplessly in its power, tied hand and foot, so to speak, and entirely subservient to its will. And labor, to find an equality, resorts to every means in its power to successfully combat capital .... A result of this is class combinations. Capitalists unite together to make terms for the laborer. Workmen form societies and demand terms from the employer .... 31 ••• The gospel has to remove the cause of every existing wrong, to heal up the wounds of society, to introduce correct feeling, brotherly love, •••• We are looking for a day .•• when the Order of Enoch shall be established •.• for Capital must deal by labor, as it would wish to be done by .... and labor mus·t learn to act in the same manner. 28 This balanced approach to the labor question was not to last. The friction between the Church and labor unions was to grow as Church members joined with outsiders,as the Church became more and more persecuted, as the Church as an employer came face to face with union demands, and as closed shops (often excluding Church members) became more and more prevalent. By 1869 there was so much concern that the School of the Prophets took action to induce the mechanics to agree to a lowering of their wages. Brigham Young and other Church leaders took an active interest in this movement. 29 The late 1860s and the 1870s mark a breaking point in the relationship between worker organizations and the Church. There is no reason to believe that there was any strong antagonism to that conclusion, at least not until the confrontations in 1864-66 over wages. In fact, the evidence seems to indicate a compatability. Previous to the entry of railroads and miners, the population was practically all Mormon, and the Church leaders maintained considerable influence over the fledgling worker organizations. The Gentile "invasion" was yet to come, and there was still confidence that Utah was a sanctuary for Church members who largely came from 32 the oppressed agricultural and industrial classes for the purpose of building up Zion. The Church. leaders, expressing themselves through the Deseret News_ and Conferences, were certain that the Church and its politico-economic institutions constituted the answer to the social and economic evils which had become a part of capitalism. It appears that in the early support of the various worker associations Church leaders hoped they could be instruments of economic control by the Churcho It was felt that there was no need to go outside of the Church and its organization for any social, political, economic or religious purposes. Zion was to be self-contained and free from the world. It may well have been the confrontations of 1864-66 that convinced President Young that his hope for economic control of Zion through control of the craft guilds could not hold up. On the other hand, the confrontations could well have convinced some craftsmen, even Mormons, that they would need to exercise independence, at least in secular affairs, from ecclesiastical authority. Evidence of this independence may be seen in the national chartering of the Deseret Typographical Union, Local 115, in 1868. With this organization, at least, a guild may be said to have been transformed into a full-fledged union. This change demonstrates the evolutionary character of many unions of the period. The business unionism of the later decades of the nineteenth century found its roots in the local reform unionism and guilds of the first half of that 33 century. However, as unionization proceeded, these groups found it necessary to become affiliated with. national organizations. As markets expanded, workers came into competition with_ each other; unrestricted competition drove wages down. Breaking up the crafts into components for greater efficiency often resulted in their weakening; the functions could then be taken over in large measure by semi-skilled workers or machinery. To protect their crafts and their perquisites, locals combined into national unions. The printers of Deseret were incorporated in such a union in 1868. For Zion's craft organizations, this trend proved troublesome, for the religious motivation and influence characteristic of earlier years suffered as the local unions merged their interests with those of the national unions. Religious leaders were less and less able to affect the decisions and actions of the union which understandably created some apprehension on the part of Church leaders who were somewhat protective of their positions of influence, and whose vision was still one of a Theocratic Zion. Such new outside affiliations represented a breakdown of Zionic hopes, even though the separateness was to be the wave of the future not only for Mormon workers but also for professional and business groups. of the printers indicates that the The local affiliation religiously-~otivated and influen- ced printers guild was not adequately representing the interests of its members, at least in their view. It must be remembered that this association took place before the intrusion of Gentile unionism 34 and was d'ominated, if not monopolized, by Latter-day Saints. This break in Church_ encouragement of worker organizations was not isolated but was part of a general Retrenchment policy established by Brigham Young and Church leaders in 1869. With the building of railroads, a substantial influx of non-Mormons was anticipated. It was possible that non-Mormons might even become a dominant influence, bringing with them the "ways of the world," an influence that could break down the cohesiveness of the Saints as well as the moral fiber of the community. This concern brought "retrenchment," an attempt to reconvert the Saints and to isolate them politically, socially, and economically from the growing number of' Gentiles in their midst. One of the efforts to implement the policy was the Mormon cooperative movement, of which the Zions Cooperative Mercantile Institution was the parent organization. Mormon businessmen were expected to deal only with Mormon businessmen and ZCMI, with strong social and economic sanctions to enforce a policy of non-intercourse with . the Gentile community. policy w~s the Godbeite Heresy A reaction to this which was to see the disaffection and eventual excommunication of a number of leading Mormon businessmen and intellectuals, even reaching ecclesiastical leaders including the Quorum of the Twelve.' Mormon unionists were caught in the middle of the struggle between the Church and business. In 1871 the Local il5 of the Typographical union sponsored 35 the first known formal strike in Utah's history. It took place in opposition to the anti-Mormon Salt Lake Tribune's firing of two members of the local. A growing antagonism between the Mormon and non Mormon communities is seen in an article in the Tribune on December 23, 1871 in which a non-Mormon criticized Mormons for being clannish. The article then suggested that Gentiles should do likewise, acting in concert. It was further suggested that the mines served as a haven for non-members. 31 The Salt Lake Tribune saw the union activity as " ... an indication of the growing independence of workingmen and as evidence of 32 the widening breach between the Church and State." The very fact that the now firmly-established Tribune, which was very much opposed to the Mormon Church, was championing the labor movement as an instrument. for driving a wedge between the people and the Church helped make the Church leadership and devout members skeptical of trade unionism. In addition, however, it indicates that some sort of breach between the unions and the Church may have already occurred. Nevertheless, there was still some ambivalence, as evidenced by the life of Robert Gibson Sleater, a charter member of Typographical Local 115. In 1869 Sleater, in addition to his work as a typ- ograph.er, was associated with George D. Watt, a clerk to Brigham Young, in a commission merchant business in Salt Lake City. The business, a victim of retrenchment, was boycotted because of its 36 business dealings with the Gentile community. fected and eventually was excommunicated. Watt became disaf- Sleater remained loyal to the Church and to Brigham Young in spite of this loss. In 1872 Typographical Local 115 sent Sleater as a delegate to the national convention of the International Typographical Union, where he was elected a national vice president. 33 The following year, with the blessing of Erigham Young, he went to Provo where he became the publisher and editor of Utah County's first newspaper. In this capacity, he followed almost slavishly the editorial policy of the Deseret News during the newspaper war with the Salt Lake Tribune and other anti-Mormon publications. He returned to Salt Lake following the death of Brigham Young in 1877, rising to prominence in the Utah labor movement, the International Typographical Union, and even the American Federation of Labor (AFL). 34 Deseret School Teachers One more guild-type-organization with roots in the early 1860s was the Deseret School Teachers Association which marched at the ~nd of the worker section in the Fourth of July parade in 1861. Following that activity and prior to 1872, history is silent on this group. On October 4 of that year, the Territorial Teachers Convention met in the University Building to effect a "permanent organization" known as the Deseret Teachers Association. Evidently the earlier association had become defunct. Prominent at this meeting were Robert Lang Campbell, a clerk 37 in the Church Historian's of~ice as well as Utah's first Superin- tendent of Schools; the Dusenberrys, who established the precursor to Brigham Young University; and Karl G. Maeser, first president of that institution; along with John R. Park, prominent in establishing the University of Utah. At this meeting a resolution was passed encouraging an educational system dedicated to be a "moral influence in aid of establishing a proper system of free schools in the Territory," a progressive step for that day. After a brief entry a few days later, history is again silent on this particular organization. The Association, too, may have become a victim of the depression of the 1870s. 35 The Depression of 1873-1879 The winter of 1873 was a bad one economically as it initiated a depression that was to last until 1879 in the Territory as well as throughout the nation. Unemployment was rampant, and there was downward pressure on wages. In spite of the unemployment, evidently employers were seeking even greater power to drive wages down by advertising for additional craftsmen to move into the Salt Lake City. On March 24, 1874, a group of two hundred workingmen assembled in Independence Hall in Salt Lake City to protest a statement in the Herald, a Mormon-controlled newspaper, that "there is employment in this city for outside mechanics." The Chairman of the meeting was James Stevens, a carpenter and member of the Church, and the Secretary was Edward Tyson, a plasterer and non-member of the Church. 38 A Resolutions Committee was named to express the sense of the meeting. I.t concerned the.Herald statement which evidently em- anated from a Mormon building contractor and self-styled capitalist, Nicholas Groesbeck. Apparently Groesbeck had attempted to put into practice a goal of the School of the Prophets to reduce wages by a third to one-half, a policy strongly attacked by the apostate God• 37 associated with the Tribune. b eites One man, S. Ho Carlisle of the Stonecutters and a Church member, was vocal in condemning President Young's reported plan to reduce mechanics' wages to $1.50 per day and laborer's wages to $.75 per day. A resolution was adopted which read, in part: ••• Resolved, That we, the workingmen of Salt Lake, in mass meeting assembled do most emphatically denounce the policy of inviting an outside laboring population into our midst to flood the labor market, as being inimical to their interest and own. Resolved, That it is the expressed sense of this meeting that the labor market has been overstocked for at least two years, and that at no time has the demand been equal to the supply. Outside of the criticism of the reported wage-cutting policy of Brigham Young, those at the meeting demonstrated little animosity toward the Church. Even though the meeting was dominated in numbers by non-Mormons, there apparently were leaders and representatives who were not antagonistic toward the Church and who did not want the group to attack it. At least one of these leaders, James Watson, was to become a bishop a few years· later. 39 The hope for permanent union organization evidently soon died out, no doubt 39 the apparent victim of depression and the apathy toward trade union activity usually associated with it. A big change had come over the worker movement from that of the 1860s.. The earlier movement had been dominated by Mormons, while the 1874 meeting, even though chaired by a member of the Church, was noted for the paucity of Church members. Of the twenty-two partici- pants known by name, only six or 27.3 percent we.re known members of the Church. 40 Although.diluted somewhat by the members of the Salt Lake Tribune whose employees had become members of the local, in 1879 Mormon domination of the Typographers was still .a fact. seven officers th~t Of the year, at least five were Church members, fewer than the number in 1868. The president, Henry McEwan, was a devout Church member, and the local was still named "Deseret." 41 There was little known union activity from 1874-79. During the years between 1875 and 1879, not one single labor news item was found in the Salt Lake Tribune, which was the Salt Lake newspaper In the 1876-78 period, about the 42 only union activity £ound was in the mining industry. most likely to have labor news. The virtual collapse of the trade union movement in the 1874-79 period could have been predicted from a purely historical perspective. Certainly it is not surprising to contemporary students of labor history. During prosperity, unions flourished; the opposite was true in recession. When profits were low, employers could afford to give in to union demands, and they would just as soon lose some of their 40 workers, anyway. Consequently, unions had little success in improv- ing worker benefits and seeing little value in union membership, the workers tended to drop out. This sequence appears to have been gen- erally valid for the 1875-79 period in Utah. The United Order Movement The Church response to the Depression was the United Order movement, commencing in the spring of 1874. Patterned somewhat after an experimental effort in Brigham City, about two hundred Order branches were established throughout Deseret that year, most of them being general or undifferentiated community-wide organizations. Associated with the United Order movement were the relatively little known "specialty" United Orders, producing a single or C;!losely related product(s), and composed of workers and management controlled through the priesthood. Most of these specialties and crafts were formed in the urban wards in Ogden and Salt Lake, but some were established in smaller towns such as St. George and Logan. A brick and shoe United Order were established in St. George in June, 1874, and a boot and a shoe Order were established in the Salt Lake Twentieth Ward in October, 1874. A tannery Order was es- tablished at Farmington, September 26, 1874, and on July 17, 1874, the United Order of Tailors of Salt Lake City was organized, reportedly becoming one of the leading tailoring establishments in Salt Lake City .. 43 These United Orders cut down the number of potential Mormon 41 members of conventional unions and had the specific effect of drawing Mormons, both members and leaders, from whatever unions remained after the onset of the Depression beginning in 1873; thus these unions largely came under the control of non-Mormons and/or the less devout members of the Church. By 1875 most general United Orders had disappeared, and after the death of Brigham Young in 1877 but few remained, most of them evidently being the specialty United Orders. By 1886 the remaining United Orders had either collapsed, been converted into conventional cooperatives, or become strictly private enterprises. 44 Associated with the United Orders was the St. George Builders Union which was organized on June 6, 1877 by the members of the St. George United Order under the direction of the Stake Presidency to promote their interests and those of the community. Wages were to be fixed or controlled by the union in a manner similar to attempts of secular unions. The disposition of any surplus of union receipts was to be made as directed by the union and the priesthood, no member • having any claim to them. 45 Similar to the Typographical Association in 1855, it was a closed union, only Church members being allowed membership. All members were required to sign the articles of agreement and could be expelled by a two-thirds vote for "acts detrimental or prejudicial to the interests of the union." The presiding officer (superintendent) was assisted by foremen over each department of work. All were 42 elected to office by the union membership and were to hold off ice as long as they were willing to serve or until rejected by a two-thirds vote. 46 Each member agreed to allow the union officers to negotiate all contracts for work and to be controlled by the officers in his labor. Meetings were held as called except that one was scheduled for June 1 of each year ·for the ·purpose of "sustaining" the leaders. Any five members could require the superintendent to call a meeting. The work day was held at ten hours; wages were to be credited for overtime, but evidently at no premium rates. were not to be consumed on the job. Intoxicating beverages 47 Most of the leaders in this organization were men who had been prominent in the construction of the Church tabernacle and temple in St. George. Bishop Miles P. Romney, the son of Miles Romney who was the general superintendent of construction on these Church buildings and leader of the Carpenters and Joiners in 1861, was elected the first superintendent of the union• Railroaders and Miners As already pointed out, one of the reasons for the shift from Mormon-dominated unionism of the 1850s and 1860s was that with the coming of the railroads in 1869, there was a great influx of railroad workmen, transferred into Utah from the unionized East. probably largely non-Mormon. These were Even though Mormons had played a domin- ant role in the construction of the railroad trackage through Utah 43 as well as its approaches, their jobs were temporary. Once the tracks were built, the workers returned to their homes and usual occupations, leaving non-Mormons to control the railroad unions. Anoth_er factor influencing the change was the mining industry. In addition to the union activities of the traditional, craftoriented unionism, a new form of labor organization--industrial unions--began to take shape in Utah in the 1870s. With the coming of the railroads, the economic feasibility of developing the rich ore bodies improved and great numbers of non-Mormon miners entered the Territory, thus diluting Mormon political and economic power which had been almost absolute up to that time. 49 Associated indus- tries, especially the processing of precious metals, boomed. Working conditions in the mines were abominable. Health and safety standards were almost non-existent, and in addition the pay was low and uncertain. the miners. The result was organizational activities by In 1871 miners in the Logan area attempted to organize. It was said that the attempt was unsuccessful due largely to the antagonism between non-Mormons and the dominant Mormon community which looked with disfavor on typical mining town gambling, liquor, vialence and prostitution. The Salt Lake Tribune reported that the miners were "determined to be governed by their law of their own making." 50 This friction probably did not differ greatly from that where any settled, conservative, agriculturally-oriented community existed, but in this 44 instance the Mormons were dominant and probably sought to impose their standards of morality on a mining community characterized by relative lawlessness. Not only did the miners organize, but they were also frequently engaged in disputes with their employers over the payment of wages. Workers were usually supposed to be paid once a month. However, if anything interfered with the company's income, the company frequently refused to pay wages saying they could not be paid when the company did not have money to pay them. The result of miner agitation on this issue was a Territorial Miner's Law in 1872 which gave miners legal title to wages earned whether company income was sufficient or not. 51 This law did not guarantee payment; it only meant that workers could sue to recover wages earned but not paid, and few miners were in a position to sue. The mining industry, with the exception of coal mining, was probably dominated by non-Mormons and people who had drawn away from the Church. This characteristic had developed largely because of the opposition of Brigham Young to precious metal mining by the Mormons as he feared that gold and silver fever would weaken devotion to the "building up of the Kingdom." He felt that greater economic security could be found in the long-run development of agriculture and industry rather than in the short-run, highly speculative mining of precious metals. Also, mining camps were notoriously immoral, not conducive to spiritual development, and potentially destructive 45 of the faith of the people associating in them. Most of Utah's multi-millionaires of the late 1800s, most of whom were non-Mormons, 52 made their wealth in the mining industry. Somewhat contrary to the union activity in the Gentile mining communities was the coal mining industry. In Pleasant Valley in the southeastern corner of Utah County, the miners engaged in a strike in 1883, an event indicating some form of organization. A. O. Smoot, the stake president of Utah Stake, visited the valley and induced the men to return to work. Several "hostile" strikers were arrested 53 for "intimidating their fellows." It is probably that the strikers mainly were Church members over whom Smoot presided ecclesiastically, 54 as only this would account for his influence in settling the strike. The feeling between Gentiles and Mormons was antagonistic at this· time, and it is doubtful that Smoot could have induced others besides Church members to return to work. The Knights and the Beginning of Church Resistance The polyglot, nationally-organized Noble Order of the Knights of Labor, formed in 1869, probably got its start in Utah in the early 1880s. On August 18, 1855, the Knights made their first known appear- ance in Utah in a communication from Ogden opposing the use of oriental labor and signed Committee of Knights of Labor. 55 While the Deseret News was also opposed to the importation of Chinese labor, it was just as opposed to the violence used by some of the Knights in excluding them. 46 However, ·by the following year, some members of the Church had become associated with the Knights. 56 By 1888 membership in this national federation of unions reportedly reached a peak of about 1,100 in the Territory. 57 It might seem, when considering the similarities of the economic programs of the Knights and the Church which both encouraged cooperation and arbitration and eschewed strikes, that they would have been able to harmonize their efforts. number of factors that interfered. However, there were a First, while.the Knights' national leaders opposed st.rikes and violence they were unable to control local assemblies. The only power they had was moral persuasion, which was insufficient to control rebe1lious local groups. Therefore, violent local mob action, of which the Church leaders were most fearful, often ensued where the Knights were involved. A second factor was the Church's general policy of non-involvement with Gentiles during the 1870s and 1880s; the Church had no reason to make an exception to this policy for the Knights. A third factor was that both organizations had a high degree of secrecy connected with them. Church temple services were not open to the public, nor were Knight meetings. The very existence of secrecy encouraged distrust on both sides. A fourth factor was that the Knights basically represented workers, whereas the Church represented members who were workers and employers and was itself an employer, thus creating an obvious 47 conflict of interest. A fifth possible interference may have been th.at Church leaders considered the producers' cooperatives of the Knights as counterfeits of the Lord's cooperative economic program which were created to deceive the people. Sixth, the Knights took a position against polygamy during the time when the Church was fighting against extinction at the hands of anti-polygamy enemies, and this automatically placed the Knights in the camp of the enemy, or at least in the minds of the Mormon leaders. Early in 1886, the editors of the Deseret News advised the Saints not to become members of any secret society or "worldly entanglements," including the Knights. 58 Later that year, the Salt Lake City·Knights, retaining vestiges of secrecy, retaliated by passing a resolution excluding polygamists from membership eliminated many Mormons, of course. 59 , which The Deseret News reacted, say- ing, "There may be a few stragglers professing to be members of the Church who have identified themselves with the movement thus far, but doubtless they could almost be counted on the fingers. even they are probably of doubtful faith and standing. And 1160 This conclusion concerning the doubtful faith and standing of Church members associated with the Knights undoubtedly must have hurt those devout Church members within the Knights, but it was a conclusion which would become increasingly strong for many years within the Church and would extend to cover unions in general. A reply was made in the same issue of the Deseret News, an 48 indication that someone working for the News. had access to the editorial before publication. The reply was signed anonymously by "Vindex," who averred that there were many Church members associated with the Knights. He went on to enunciate the principles of the Knights, many of which the Deseret News supported in reply. In addition, Vindex informed the editors that forces within the Knights had been able to eliminate the anti-Mormon resolution, an evidence of the probable numerical importance of active Mormons in that organ. . 61 ization. It may also reflect the continued substantial role of Latter-day 'Saint members in the Typographical Union and the influ,ence of the polygamous R. G. Sleater. Even though the waters were calmed, the Church leaders undoubtedly remained skeptical of this outside organization with which some Church members had become associated, and over which the Church leaders had little.direct influence. This skepticism ·was no doubt enhanced by the violence that accompanied much of the Knight's activity in Utah and the West, especially in Wyoming. One student of the Utah labor scene has concluded that: The Knights of Labor uprising in Utah planted the seeds of Church opposition to organized labor. It was the first known time that the Church came so close to forbidding its members from taking part in activities of labor organizations akin to "secret combinations" such as the Knights of Labor. The Church vehemently denounced all the radical methods to achieve goals of labor though at times it was verbally quite sympathetic to the cause of labor ..•. As there was no place whatsoever for radical philosophies in the theological te.achings of the Mormon Church, these .labor organizations were naturally looked upon with caution. 49 Afterwards, the Church always remained on guard whenever confronted by a labor question ••.• Out of this general environment of the late 1880's was born a conservative (union~ leadership that dominated the (Utah) labor movement.6 The Typographers Again The best documented indication of the secularization of the union movement may be seen in the case of the Typographers. As al- ready indicated, when Local 115 was chartered by the National Typographical Association in 1868, at least eighty percent of the charter members and officers were Latter-day Saints. In 1879, of the eleven different officers and executive committee members, seven, or 63.6 percent, were known Church members. By 1885, Church members in the Typographers union numbered only two out of four, and in 1886-87, only one of five union officers, or 20 percent, was a Latterday Saint. position) The known local presidents (two of them sharing that up to 1885 were Church members--Henry McEwan, an active, devout Church member frequently employed by the Deseret News, and Robert Gibson Sleater, loyal but not so active in the Church. In 1886, H. L. White, whose religious affiliation is unknown, became the local president. In that same year when not only the president but a majority of the officers were probably non-LDS, the local's name was changed from Deseret Local 115 to Salt Lake City Local 115. 63 While the religious affiliation of the Local's membership has not yet been ascertained, the majority was undoubtedly non-Mormon. 50 There had been considerable increase in membership in the local, growing from fourteen in 1880 to fifty in 1886, and this increase could only have taken place due to the heavy influx of typographers from outside Utah, mostly non-Mormon. In 1886 alone, twenty-two members were admitted to the Local by card--that is, they had moved into the Local. 64 During these years, Mormon immigration was minimal. This non-Mormon domination of Local 115 became even more evident in 1890 when the local leadership, supported by the ITU Organizer, decided to "take on" the Deseret News, which had maintained an open shop policy. Until that time, the Deseret News employees were free to belong to the Union or not, and local Union members were free to work for the Deseret News, even though they might be working alongside non-union men which was a violation of the principles of the Union. That year the Union decided on a showdown, with the International Organizer visiting News and Church officials. The Union official reported to the ITU convention of that year that he had thought he had the support of these officials in "aid of the Organizer's plans." But the Organizer reported that "the business manager threw obstacles in the way and ... his influence arrayed the board of directors against any change .... " The employees who had reportedly favored affiliation previously suddenly turned against the Union, "remaining with the Deseret News claiming no benefit outside the Mormon Church would be commensurate 51 with Union membership.. iness manager." All of this doubtless inspired by the bus- The result was that a decl~ration was made that the News was "closed to union men and such Union men.as were at present employed be called out .•.• (with) but one remaining in the office so ca11 e d out ..... "65 This confrontation was most significant, as the Typographers had previously been in a position to mediate differences between the Churcp and the unions. The lines having been drawn, they were no longer in such a position. Utah Labor and the American Federation of Labor By 1889 unionization had developed to the extent that there were about twenty unions in Salt Lake City, many of them associated with national unions. In 1889 fourteen of them organized into a central body, the Federated Trades and the Labor Council, under R. G. Sleater's leadership. 66 What the exact relationship of these locals was to the Knights of Labor vis-a-vis the American Federation of Labor is still uncertain. From 1881-86, the Knights of Labor and the Federation of Organized Trades and Labor Unions at the national level had attempted to live side by side. The Knights were organized as a single union composed of all trades; the Federation consisted of autonomous nationals and internationals. By 1886 leaders of both national organizations realized that they could not coexist. The result was that they made dual association impossible, and nationals 52 and members had to make a choice. The year 1886 is usually dated as the zenith of the Knights; the American Federal of Labor (AFL) which had been created at the 1886 convention of the Federation of Organized Trades and Labor Unions gained ascendancy and became the dominant, overarching federation as the Knights sank into oblivion. The use of the term "Federated Trades and Labor Council" in Utah indicates at least a philosophical alliance with the Federation of Organized Trades and Labor Unions, the predecessor of the AFL. However, Utah was not represented at its conventions in the 1881-86 period. Why this name was retained in the face of the new name of the American Federation of Labor, with which Utah's Federated Trades associated in 1889, is uncertain. The desertion of the Utah trade unions from the Knights may have been influenced somewhat by the conflict between the Knights and the Church leadership. At that point in time, active Latter-day Saints would have a tendency to eschew the Knights in the face of Church criticism, finding a less uncomfortable home with the AFL. In December of 1889, Utah and Salt Lake City were represented by R. G. Sleater in Boston at the ninth convention of the fledgling American Federation of Labor. 67 This was Utah's first known repre- sentation in the convention of an overarching federation, and the first known participation in a national labor convention since 1872. Utah was one of the earliest city or state-territory central federations to be represented, and was actually the only Territory 53 represented in the AFL. Evidently no other Utahns attended an AFL convention until 1896 when George A. Whitaker, a non-Mormon cigarmaker from Salt Lake City, represented the Cigarmakers International Union. While Sleater spoke at and participated in the 1889 AFL con- vention as a representative of the Utah Federated Trades and Labor Council and was an organizer for the AFL in 1891-92, the first evidence we have of official association of the Utah Federal Trades and Labor Council with the body as a constituent member was in 1893 when 68 a charter was applied for and granted. The Workingmen's Party In 1890 an attempt was made by Sleater at an alliance between the Church and unions in the formation of the Workingmen's Party in th~ Salt Lake County elections of that year. The anti-Mormon Liberal Pary had achieved sufficient strength to challenge seriously domination of county officers by Mormons. The Mormon People's Party which had dom- inated the political scene and the Workingmen's Party, evidently created by Sleater for the Occasion, collaborated in the formation of a conunon ticket. This action, of which neither the Typographers nor the Utah Federated Trades had evidently been aware, produced strong union reaction and Sleater became the object of vigorous verbal and written . . 69 attac k b y f e 11 ow unionists. The collaboration proved ineffective, and perhaps even counterproductive. The Workingmen-People's Party ticket was defeated, and 54 Sleater's leadership in the union movement seriously challenged though he was to spring back in 1896 as the first president of the new Utah Federation of Labor which superceded the old Council after the depression of 1893-94. 70 This defeat consituted one more element in the secularization of the Utah labor movement. Direct Mormon in- fluence was certainly on the wane. Utah's Union Leaders in 1890 A final evidence of the secularization of the Utah labor movement is in the composite of Utah's known union leaders in 1890. Of the thirty-three different chief union leaders of the Utah Federated Trades and local unions listed in the Salt Lake City Directory of that year, only five or 15 percent have thus far been identified as members of the Church, compared with 70 percent in 1861 71 and 27 percent in 1874. SUMMARY The following developments were probably the most responsible for the secularization of the Utah labor movement between 1852 and 1892: 1. The heavy influx of non-Mormon workmen associated in the mining and railroad industries as well as the construction unions and eventually in the Typographical union. 2. The radical and sometimes violent activities cf the Knights of Labor and miners. 55 3. The insistence upon closed shops by conservative unions. 4. The firm resistance of the Church to closed sh.ops when controlled by unions. 5. The anti-polygamy campaign of the late 1880s which polar- ized the Mormon and non-Mormon communities, and which involved the Knights openly, albeit temporarily, against the Church. 6. The organization of the United Orders which drew off many Latter-day Saints from the budding union movement, depriving local unions of Mormon leadership and membership. 7. The strong public pronouncement of Church leaders against unions and union activities which influenced some active Church members to leave union activity. 8. The emasculation of the Mormon politico-economic syste~. The People's Party was defeated in the Mormon capital, and the United Orders either disappeared or were absorbed by private Mormon capitalists. Non-Mormon capital came to dominate the Territory, and therefore Mormon workmen, except for the few working for Churchowned business houses, were secularized. They were no longer working directly for the "building of the Kingdom" in their occupational pursuits, though they could work indirectly for it through contributions to the Church. Even Church-owned business houses accommodated them- selves to the secularized business world by adjusting business practices to those of the Gentile community. 9. By the time the Utah economy had become secularized, the Church leadership had established a negative attitude toward unionism, 56 and devout Mormons who obeyed counsel were not as free to join the union movement as they had been in the days of its infancy. There- fore, non-Mormons came to dominate. 10. Many relatively conservative Mormons were undoubtedly "turned off" by the rambunctious, intimidating posture of a union movement beginning to "feel its oats." Strikes, demonstrations, picketing, demands, and sometimes even violence were foreign to mos:t of the Mormons in the work force, many of whom had recently come from quiet fanning villages. 11. What few Mormon union leaders there were found them- selves in a most difficult situation. Unions were highly democratic and union leaders had to respond to worker demands to stay in office. If the Mormon union leaders responded to worker demands to the point of confrontation with business leaders who were Church leaders (local, regional or general) or who either as Mormons or non-Mormons were supported by the Church hierarchy, these were considered as rebels against "constituted authority." On the other hand, if they obeyed "counsel" of Church leaders against the perceived interest of the workers, they would lose all influence within the union movement. Only the very strongest of men could stand up to the pressure of such a dilemma. 12. Once the local unions became associated j_n national union activites, their:,sovereignty became limited as their goals and practices merged of necessity in harmony with those of their union 57 brothers throughout the country. Even in the absence of compulsion, this merger of interests would take place as the new influence of unionists from outside the community became felt. CONCLUSIONS The process of secularization represents a breakdown in the singular control or influence of an institution or a religious body, control or influence thenceforth being exercised through a number of non-religious forces. 1. Secularization requires the following: The introduction of pertinent non-religious influences and controls in sufficient weight to be self-sustaining. 2. The weakening or redirection of the influence of religious authorities over the institution through one or m9re of the following: a. removal of the singular influence b. dilution of the power of the singular influence c. separation of the institution's members and leaders from the religious body d. the purposeful decision of the religious body to secularize the institution 3. The bifurcation of goals: the goals of the religious . body moving in one direction, the goals of the associated institution moving in a different direction and becoming incompatible with the goals of the religious body. 58 These conditions for secularization were existent in the relationship of the Utah labor movement and the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints in the late 1800s. In the 1850s, the singular power and influence of the Church in Deseret had created a religiouslyoriented worker movement. With the 1860s, a number of nonreligious forces began to make themselves felt. In the early years of that decade, war-induced inflation began to affect worker goals as was true of the unemployment associated with the depression of the 1870s. With the coming of the railroads in 1869 and the opening up of the mining industry in the 1870s, non-Mormon workers were introduced into the community in great numbers bringing different cultural values, as was true of many craftsmen in the 1870s and 1880s who entered in support of the expanding economy. As the previously localized worker groups became associated with the national union movement, especially in the 1880s and thereafter, they came under first the influence and then the control of secular or non-religiously oriented forces. Church leaders hastened the secularization of the worker movement by the organization of the Cooperation~ then the United Order, and finally the Board of Trade movements of the 1869-86 period, attracting Mormon workers and thus reducing the influence of devout Mormons on the budding union movement. The Church policy of noninter- course with the non-Mormon community in the 1870s, while strengthening some Saints also induced others to pursue a course in opposition to the Church policy, hastening separation for them. The attacks 59 against independent worker organizations by Church representatives beginning in the late 1880s aggravated the separation from the Church of some union members, while the :insistence of some of the unions on the use of violence and of others on the establishment of the closed shop served to separate th.e goals. The division of goals was completed with the political and business secularization of the 1890s. To achieve statehood, the Church leaders agreed to political secularization. Church leaders may also have agreed to the secularization of the business life of the community. If so, such agreement only hastened what was already taking place with the demise of the major Church economic programs and the ascendancy of private capitalism with the organizationally superior "corporation" as its chief economic advantage. Mormon workmen were thus divested of the protection of a Church economic program and lost their role of "Zion's Workmen Building the Kingdom." They became the employees of three kinds of secularized businesses: non-Mormon capitalists, Mormon capitalists, and Cpurch-owned businesses operating in competition with private capitalists, all of them receiving the sanction and blessing of Church leaders. goal While the workers' was personal economic development, their employers' goal was profits, which while not necessarily incompatible today was generally most incompatible in that day and ag~. Employers almost universally viewed increased economic benefits to workers as a reduction of their profits. By the time statehood had come to pass, all of the requirements 60 for secularization had been met. it was not alone. Utah labor was secularized; however, The previously religiously-directed political and business life of the connnunity had likewise become secularized. educational life was well on its way to secularization. The Only the Church and the social life it fostered through the intense involvement of its membership remained religiously directed. FOOTNOTES 1. Rita Latimer Hal;ford, "Nauvoo--the City Beautiful," Proceedings of the.· Academy of· Sciences, Arts and Letters, 23 (194546), p. 41. 2. Charles Lambert Diary, LDS Church Historical Department, Salt Lake City. 1846. 3. Ila Fisher Maughan, "History of Staging and Business Methods of the Deseret Dramatic Association, 1852-1869," (Unpublished Master's Thesis, University of Utah, 1949), p. 27. 4. Robert Bruce Flanders, "Nauvoo Kingdom on the Mississippi," (Unpublished Ph.D. Dissertation, University of Wisconsin, 1964), p. 167. 5. Ibid. 6. Ibid. 7. Maughan, p. 27. 8. Ibid., and Deseret News, July 4, 1861. 9. Maughan, pp. 29-30. 10. Ibid., p. 35. 11. Ibid., p. 47. 12. Ibid., pp. 119-121 (as quoted from Annie Adams Kiskadden's Gree'n Book, June, 1914). 13. Journal History, LDS Church Historical Department, Salt Lake City, February 24, 1852. 14. Ibid., January 22, 1852; March 16, 1854. 15. Ibid~, 16. Ibid., October 4, 1853; November 1, 1855; February 8, 1856. 17. ;Deseret News, J,uly 4, 1861. January 13, 1855. 62 No~ 18. Deseret Typographical Union, 115, "Charter," 1868. 19. Family Group Sheets of officers of Deseret Typographical Union, No. 115, found in LDS Archives, LDS Genealogic;al Society Library Salt Lake City. 20. Journal History, July S, 1861. 21. Information on these organizations was gleaned from several standard labor history texts: Millis and Montgomery, Organized Labor, (New York: McGrawHill, 1965). Philip Taft, Organized Labor in American History, (New York: Harper & Row, 1964). Foster Rh.ea Duttes, Labor in America, (New York: Cromwell, 1960). 22. Charles Lambert Diary. 23. Family Group Sheets. 24. Journal History, July 5, 1869. 25. Deseret News, August 1, 1855. 26. Deseret News, February 1, 1865. 27. Journal History, September 17, 1866. 28. Deseret News, 29. Leonard Arrington, Great Basin Kingdom, (Cambridge, Mass.: Harvard Press, 1958), pp. 245-51. 30. Salt Lake Tribune, November 7, 1871. 31. Ibid., December 23, 1871. 32. Ibid., May 27, 1872. 33. International Typographical Union, nconvention Proceedings," 1872. (Unpublished). 34. J. Kenneth Davies, "Robert Gibson Sleater, Pioneer Mormon Union Leader," unpublished article. 35. Journal History, October 4, 1872. May 27, 1868. 63 36. Salt Lake Tribune, March 24, 1974, p. 4. 37. A group of apostate. Mormons in the 1870s who. attempted to reform tlle Church and. maintain economic, social, and political ties with the Centile or non-Mormon community. 38. Salt Lake Tribune, March 24, 1874, p. 4. 39. Obituaries, Deseret News . 40. Biographical Sketches by author. 41. ITU Convention Proceedings, 1879-1886. 42. Survey of Salt Lake Tribune for 1879, Author's files. 43. Journal History for these dates. 44. See Journal Historl, 1874-86. 45. Journal History, June 6, 1877; "Manuscript History of St. George," LDS Church Historical Department, Salt Lake City, March 27, 1877. 46. Ibid. 47. Journal History, June 10, 1877. 48. N. B. Lund.wall, Temples of the Most HigE_ (Salt Lake City: Bookcraft, 1949), p. 88. 49. Arrington, Great Basin Kingdom, p. 242. 50. Salt Lake Tribune, April 19, 1871, p. 2 (Pawar, p. 64). 51. Salt Lake Tribune, April 11, 1872, p. 3 (Pawar,' p. 67). 52. Arrington, Great Basin Kingdom. 53. The Latter-day Saints' Millenial Star, 45 (Liverpool, England, 1883), p. 174. 54. A branch of the Church existed in Pleasant Valley at that time. 55. Ogden Daily Herald, August 18, 1885 (Pawar, p. 95). 56. Deseret News Weekly, September 22, 1886 (Pawar, pp. 96-100). 64 57. Edward L. Christensen, "The Development and Stature of the Utah Industrial Council ti (Unpublished Master's Thesis, University of Utah, 1939), pp. 21, 55-67. 58. Deseret News, May 10, 1886. 59. Salt Lake Tribune, August 22, 1886. 60. Deseret News, September 8, 1886. 61. Ibid. 62. Pawar, Sheelwant Bapurao, "An Environmental Study of the Utah Labor Movement" (Unpublished Ph.D. Dissertation, University of Utah, 1968), p. 104. 63. ITU Convention Proceedings, 1886. 64. Ibid. 65. Ibid., 1890. 66. Lee Scorup, "Organized Labor in Utah," (Unpublished Master's Thesis, University of Utah, 1935), p. 10. 67. American Federation of Labor, AFL Convention Report, 1889. 68. Utah Federated Trades & Labor Council, Application for Charter, June 12, 1893. 69. Salt Lake Tribune, August 4, 1890, and Pawar, "Environmental Study," p. 136. 70. Salt Lake Directories, 1894-96. 71. Ibid., and LDS Church Archives. THE SECOND GATHERING: THE NEW MIGRANTS TO UTAH John L. Sorenson Brigham Young University The Gathering of Israel was' a prominent theme in nineteenth century Mormonism. Many thousands of converts to that faith migrat- ed from various areas of the United States and particularly northwestern Europe to inhabit the newly-opened lands of the Great Basin and to associate themselves with the effort to "build Zion." As the last century waned, land available to accommodate new immigrants became scarce. By 1920, new Latter-day Saints were being counseled not to locate in the Old Mormon territories in the West. With this religiously motivated immigration ceasing, the population of Utah continued to grow by births to the point where emigration began, · particularly of younger people, reaching its peak at about the time of World War II. In the post-war years, emigration and immigration came into general balance. Thus in the 1950 to 1960 decade, there was a 1.1 -percent excess of immigration o~er emigration, 1 while from 1960 to 1970, the figures was 1.2 percent in the opposite direction. 2 1 university of Utah, Bureau of Economic and Business Research, Statistical Abstracts of Utah. Salt Lake City, 1969, Table 15, p. 30. 2u. s., Department of Commerce, Bureau of the Census, Current Population Reports, Population Estimates and Projections, p. 25, #460, p. 66. 66 My concern here is not with statistics, however. It is clear enough that significant numbers of people have been moving into Utah to justify asking who they are and what their problems of accommodation are. The aim of this paper is to provide an initial response to these queries. While the data available to me are limited, they are sufficient to suggest the lines which a systematic investigation might take. I consciously exclude from present consideration those immigrants who belong in the lower socioeconomic strata. Many ethnics, particularly Indians, itinerant youths, and some college and university students constitute part of the immigrant population. However, even preliminary observations on the problems of their social accommodation have little validity until a more accurate and comprehensive picture of interaction of these residents in local society can be sketched than at present. This is a topic of much interest; I ab~­ stain from treating it out of inability to provide a significant data in context. Those of the highest socioeconomic levels cannot be treated here, either. Their numbers are few, but there are such immigrants, particularly to recreational areas. They too are interesting sub- jects for study, or would be were they more visible. Utah's resident upper class is, if anything, less well known than its lowest class. 67 On the basis of the work of Domhoff 3 and Baltzell 4 in other areas of the U.S.A., I suppose that a distinct Utah upper class exists, primarily in Salt Lake City, of course. Yet, as far as I am aware, 'not even a preliminary description of that segment of the local population exists. Obviously, innnigrants in the two extreme strata face peculiar problems of social accommodation. It is the much larger middle class, however, who are both visible and on whom we can get a, reasonable perspective. Population growth is so overwhelmingly urban in Utah at this time that these middle-class immigrants settle almost wholly in the nuclear Wasatch Front area, from Provo to Ogden, with outliers at Brigham City and Logan. My data come from personal contacts with new residents themselves, with people able to report on substantial numbers of new residents known to them, and also with real estate agents and other professionals who deal with the newcomers. While I lack statistics to confirm the point, informants feel that the last three or four years have seen a new spurt in migration to this area. The reasons which the migrants give for relocation are primarily six in number: 3G. William Domhoff, Who Rules America? (Englewood Cliffs, New Jersey: Prentice-Hall, Inc., 1967), 140. 4E. Digby Baltzell, Philadelphia Gentlemen, the Making of a National Upper Class (New York: The Free Press, 1958, London: Collier-MacMillan Limited, 1958), 385. 68 1. 2. 3. 4. 5. 6. Economic--transfer by an employer Economic--hope for cheaper costs; investment, job or entrepreneurial possibilities Former residents of the area returning because of nostalgia Fear or dissatisfaction with conditions in the area of previous residence Desire for perceived social and cultural advantages Desire for a better environmental setting In individual cases, to be sure, several of these reasons are combined. With the federal government as a major employer in the state, and with more national corporations now represented locally, transfers are more numerous than at any time in the past. not random. However, they are Some are sought, in conjunction with motivators such as nostalgia, so that former Utahns who have been employed outside the area will choose a transfer to Utah when the opportunity arises. The second economic category is something of a catchall. Some people suppose that living costs will be lower here but generally are disappointed. Some persons who have accumulated capital, say in California, do invest it in Utah--in a franchise, to purchase an apartment house, etc. A substantial number of other people have already made such investments with the intent to move here at some future date, perhaps when they have reached retirement age in their present job or when their children reach university age. And despite the generally poor prospects for new business in Utah, there continue to be optimists willing to live in the state which they prefer for 69 for other reasons. Moreover, informants report that substantial numbers of potential immigrants exist around the U.S. who would like to move to the Wasatch Front if they had viable economic prospects. The nostalgic grip which this area has on many former residents is a phenomenon of distinct interest. these are devoted Mormonso ~any, but not all, of At the least, these former residents tend to be cultural Mormons, yet a sprinkling of non-LDS people also hanker for the local scene. Even families who have not lived in the state previously sometimes move in with the expectation that they will find less crime, less crowding, less pollution, more informal or open social structure, and so on. Skiing, hunting, fish- ing and camping are other attractions. Supposed social and cultural advantages also have drawing power. Not only are some people fleeing what they dislike in other places, but also they sometimes arrive here expecting better schools than their children had known, "a better quality of people," and a generally square society. Some come to be "in Zion," or to give their children an opportunity to "marry in the Church." The Mormon temples attract retired people, particularly. In addition to all these longer-range attractions, there is still that exerted by the Salt Lake metropolitan area as a center. regiona~ The flow of the Intermountain West's small town and rural population to the nearest big city, which has helped swell the size 70 of Utah's capital for several gene.rations, goes on apace. The social characteristics of those who newly settle in the area are rather varied, occurring in many ·combinations. They in- elude: 1. 2. 3. 4. 5. 6. 7. 8. 9. Complete families moving in by choice Employees transferred without specific choice Retirees, such as aged workers or ex-military personnel Widows or divorcees hoping to build a new life for themselves and/or their children Mostly Mormons More from California than any other state Mostly from urban areas Inadequate to good financial positions, generally More sophisticated than local people The problems of social accommodation facing these people are, of course, as varied as their characteristics, yet certain frequent constellations of problems are detectable. These problems can be summarized under a few headings: A. B. C. D. E. Sophistication Educational and Intellectual Level Money Conservatism vs. Innovation Ecclesiastical Orientation of Society. 1 have merely raised questions and suggested problems that are each worthy of further research. THE CRADLEBAUGH COURT (1859): A STUDY IN EARLY MORMON-GENTILE MISUNDERSTANDING Davis Bitton University of Utah In the wake of the Utah War, conditions in Utah Territory were such as to make some kind of continuing conflict virtually inevitable. A new administration, Governor Alfred Cunnning and U.S. attorney for the territory, Alexander Wilson, were generally anxious to conciliate the Mormon population. However, also present were the federal judges, John Cradlebaugh and Charles E. Sinclair, whose program was bound to produce anxiety among the Mormons, more than a few of whom had been in a state of rebellion against the national government, or at least might be charged with complicity. True, the peace commissioners and the new Governor had brought with them a presidential "pardon," but what did this mean? Would the judges honor it? In addition, there were difficult questions of competing jurisdiction. The territorial legislature had granted to the probate courts responsibility for criminal matters, and bishops' courts and high councils were deciding some cases. If the judges used federal marshal Peter K. Dotson as their enforcement official, they would be ignoring the territorial marshal, John Kay, who had been elected by the legislature. As if this chemistry were not already sufficiently volatile, in the background was the occupying 72 force of U.S. troops at Camp Floyd under the command of General Albert Sydney Johnston. These threads came together in the Cradle- baugh court held at Provo in March and April of 1859. Although the experience was in some ways trivial, it was also symptomatic of the larger causes of Mormon-Gentile antagonism. 1 Charles Sinclair had held court in November t858 with results that for the Mormons were anything but encouraging. Although Sinclair had not been successful in convincing those he was after, he had asserted a claim to support from territorial and county treasuries and had intimated that his next session of the first district court would be accompanied by a large detachment of U.S. troops to be quartered in one of the public squares of Salt Lake City. Cradlebaugh's second district court opened in Provo on March 8, 1859 with the empaneling of a grand jury. Mormon suspicions were innnediately aroused by the fact that the deputy marshal had failed to summon the jury as required, an oversight which the Mormons saw as "intentional in order to fill the panel with persons not legally drawn." Hastily the "legally drawn" jurors were notified to appear the next morning. At precisely ten o'clock the names were called. Five of them were absent (they arrived within five minutes) and were promptly replaced by bystanders whom the Mormon report said were "evidently placed in the position to be picked up as tailsmen on the Grand Jury." But a partially packed Grand Jury was of slight concern compared with what next happened. Just as the court was beginning, 73 a detachment of about one hundred soldiers requested by Cradlebaugh entered the city. The officers were quartered in the school in which the court was held, while the men camped on the school lot and two additional lots on the south side of the street. Judge Cradlebaugh explained that the troops were there primarily to "guard prisoners .. " He had been informed that th.ere were no jail facilities. Almost immediately there was friction between the troops and the townspeople. Then there were little incidents such as the pitching of tents in Isaac Robins' yard without his permission. When he protested, the tents were removed, but he was roundly cursed by the troopse People passing the area had bayonets pointed at them "menacingly .. " Nor was the belligerent behavior all on one side. Soon "boys" from the Provo area were engaging in scuffles and trading insults with the troops. drunk" the first night. The troops got "gloriously. The police force had to be doubled "to keep the boys in subjection, and take charge of the drunken soldiers who were attempting to break into houses." The Mayor immediately informed Cradlebaugh that the civil authorities could take care of all the prisoners. began: Then petitions one from the citizens of Provo to the city council, one from the Provo mayor and council to Cradlebaugh, one from the Provo mayor and council to the Governor, one from the grand jury to Cradlebaugh, and supporting petitions from the citizens of Spanish Fork and Payson. In the meantime, various personal letters also 74 expressed the Mormon resentment. these documents singly. It would be tedious to examine Instead, let us enumerate the main points made by the Mormon protesters. 1. Adequate prison facilities existed in Provo, and the local police were capable of performing the necessary guard 2. duty~ To bring troops into a city on the basis of misinformation and without prior consultation with the Governor was in violation of "the rights of American citizens, and a gross violation of our liberties and municipal immunities." 3. The troops would either intentionally or unintentionally "intimidate private citizens, witnesses, and jurors, and so prevent justice.'' aspect were! Typical terms used tc describe this "judicial terrorism," "fear of bristling bayonets," "terrorism of sword and bayonet," nmilitary judicial administration," and "military des:>otism." 4. The location of the officers in a room immediately under that of the grand jury "with only a slight ceiling be·. . tween 11 was equivalent to placing a grand jury "under military espionage." 5. The presence of the troops made it "exceedingl~" difficult for the officers of the city to preserve the peace between the unruly portion of the citizens and soldiers." This 75 caused the city nunnecessary expense." 6. It is degrading to our gallant soldiers to "use them as a county jail--a walking calaboose." 7. The f:i;iction between citizens and.soldiers, far from indicating any disloyalty or guilt on the part of the citizens, was natural: we believe that all experience has proven that the introduction of soldiers into cities or villages has had a unifonn tendency to produce hostile feelings." 8. The Provo court was in violation of the statue which required that the times and places of the courts be fixed and appointed, for the judges had fixed and appointed the second district court to take place in Fillmore in . November: "it is obvious that the 8th of March is not the '1st Monday in November,' neither is Provo on the site of Fillmore City." 9. The whole procedure was "contrary to the spirit and letter of President Buchanan's late message to . Congress" and violated "an express understanding with the Peace Commissioners ••• " 10. The use of the army as a posse comitatus was limited to a specific set of circumstances which no longer obtained. What did Cradlebaugh have to say for himself against this onslaught? Here are his basic assertions, presented as fairly as 76 possible but without attempting to conceal some inherent inconsist"encies: 1. The troops came by his invitation. Iii other words, the military did not inject itself but responded to a request of a civilian authority. Cradlebaugh rejected the claim that only the Governor could call upon troops. 2. The troops were there to "keep the peace." 3. They were there to guard prisoners in the absence of a jail. 4. They would save the Territory and the city money, for "No manner of provision had been made for their [the prisoners'] support or sustenance, neither by the Territory nor your city." 5. The military company was a "small force." 6. It was located near the court house as unot only a matter of convenience but of necessity." 7. They had done nothing to cause annoyance. The judge chal- lenged his critics to show "when, where, or in what manner these soldiers have annoyed or interfered with the citizens of Provo ...• A more quiet, orderly set of men I never saw; they have deported themselves with a propriety and decorum truly remarkable." 8. He rejected the possibility of intimidation on the grounds that "good American citizens have no cause to fear American troops." If the outcome of the controversy had been determined solely by 77 rational argument, the troops would probably have been quickly withdrawn. But there was more to it; a pervasive spirit of extremism and distrust existed on both sides. Without an awareness of the hovering fears and rumors and the stereotyping of opposing groups, the whole affair is beyond comprehension. With such an awareness, everything falls into place. We can better understand Cradlebaugh, I suspect, if we move from the specific arguments he was advancing and consider his general perceptions, frustrations, and fears. One clue is provided, I think, by the fact that "various attempts were made by the army and civil officers to open intercourse with President Young and other church leaders; but such had been the strained relations •.• that intercourse, beyond what official courtesy required, was not long attempted." The federal officials, with the possible e~ception 2 of Governor Cuttiming, were rejected and despised. On March 9, the mayor of Provo called on Cradlebaugh and "asked him if he was afraid of the people of Provo. 11 The Judge answered that he was not, though he said he had been in places where he was afraid. The same day Judge Sinclair said "he supposed he was the most. despised man in the Territory." Sinclair told someone that he couldn't get a room at the hotel in Provo because "he was so badly despised." Later, William M. Wall, Provo City Marshall, called on Sinclair who refused to see him. Wall started to walk away in a huff but was assured that the judge had nbt known who he was. He 78 returned to the tent, and the judge apologized. Emd then asked "what satisfaction Wall intended to take. 11 Wall answered that he intended "to knock him down and stamp him in the mud~1i asked if Wall didn~t know that he was a judge~ Wall, "but when a Judge stoops and be.comes a 11 Yes~n Sinclair replied rowdy, I re;:.,a,rd und treat him as such." It is not difficult to detect the note of fearful insecurity in such statements~ It seems likely that the fear of i:;cs~~ible bodily harm in Mormon country was very much :present in the minds of these judges. As George A. Smith remarked in a letter to George W. Cannon, dated March 9s- 1859~ "For the last y~ar it has been almost a uniform custom with the Judges and other Territorial of-ficers who receive their dignity by Federal appointment (exce?t His Excellency, Gov. Cumming) s when they move through tht"~ count!"v to associate with them an escort of soldiers and our gallent little army in detachments of a few companies, have per'formances of thou-· sands of miles of this slavish service, simply to graci.f'." a disro·· sition on the part of these federal appointees to imitate Oriental Princes, which has no beneficial effects, but only serves to ins~ire pity and contempt, mingled with sorrm·:·, that our glor Lrns ;:-:mrntr:.r has been degraded to the dominion of officers so lost tc e··1ery patriotic and republican principle as to imitate the ru-tes of the manacled nations of Antiquity." Take away the strortf!) condemni.ng opinion and we are left with the simple report tbat the federal 79 officials were always accompanied by a military escort .. Furthermore, the judges felt seriously frustrated~ Hearing of crimes, they hoped to bring those guilty to prosecution. On the other hand, the grand juries would not cooperate, and those charged with crimes were ignored or acquitted by the Mormon juries. Cradlebaugh saw this as a conspiracy against justice. As he told the Provo grand jury when he discharged them: You are the tools, the dupes, the instruments of a tyrannical church despotisme The heads of your church order and direct you. You are taught to obey their orders and commit these horrid murders. Deprived of your liberty, you have lost your manhood, and become the willing instruments of bad men. I say ·it to you, it will be my earnest effort, while with you, to knock off your ecclesiastical shackles and set you free~3 If the judges themselves, using federal marshals and deputies, set out to arrest and prosecute those suspected of crimes, the community seemed to set up every poss'ible obstacle. As Cradlebaugh later said: The uniform testimony of the judges is to the effect that the courts are powerless. More than fifteen Federal judges, who have gone to the Territory, have so stated. They have again and again told you that the entire legislation of the Territory is to prevent the administration of the laws; that the church authorities are determined that the laws shall not be enforced in the Federal courts; that the grand and trial jurors are Mormons, who are taught that the Mormon Church laws are the higher laws, and should prevail, and who refuse, therefore, to discharge their sworn duties, and have invariably refused to punish any Mormon for an offence committed against an anti-Mormon •.••• the records of the courts do not show a single instance of the punishment of a Mormon for an offence committed against a 'Gentile.' 80 Working against such resistance was futile. The awareness of Mountain Meadows was constantly in the background. Cradlebaugh was particularly incensed about the failure which occurred within his judicial district to bring the perpetrators of the massacre to justice. Therefore, after leaving Provo, he took it upon himself to conduct an investigation. He interviewed Indians and whites, and planned to hold an examining court at Cedar City "should General Johns(t)on furnish me protection, and also protect witnesses and furnish the marshal a posse to aid in making arrests." "Furnish me protection," "protect the witnesses"--such phrases imply much. Judge John Cradlebaugh felt despised and unwelcome, fearful of his personal safety, and frustrated in his desire to enforce justice. He was thus behaving predictably when he called upon U.S. troops, when he first charged the jury, when he later discharged them, when he conducted personal investigations, and when he rejected the charges against him. 1 submit that it is equally important, however, to remember the Mormon apprehensions and fears. These had been enormously in- fluenced by the Reformation fervor and by the experience of the Utah War, which could not be swept aside overnight. In addition, there were continuing events and statements, small individually yet of cumulative force, that seemed to confirm these attitudes. 81 Insecurity loomed large in the Mormon consciousness. In a general sense, of course, there were always possibilities of violence on the frontier, but the Mormons now had the additional concern of an occupying military force, which could at any time be used to seize and lock up·any Mormons who had been involved in the "rebellion" or could, through the activities of off-duty soldiers, freighters, or camp followers, keep the peace disturbed in other ways. On January 1, 1859, we find' Brigham Young with two guards outside his gate and "admitting no person to enter his office, only such as he had a mind to see." Five men slept there at night "in case of surprise," and an alarm bell was attached to the gate. Another small but significant element in the Mormon fear syndrome was the censorship of their mail by "the imported postmastet'." At least, they were convinced that this censorship was occurring. During the same weeks, Brigham Young was receiving anonymous threats in the mail. Anyone who has seen the effects of poison pen letters and any housewife who has received obscene telephone calls can imagine what this one small thing represented to the Mormon group psychology. An incident in Manti on March 11 is revealing. of troops was looking for Mormon leaders. A detachment When· the main troop passed peaceably through Mani, two young men who claimed to be deputy U.S. marshals stayed behind and "rode back and forth shouting, yelling, cursing, etc." 82 They denounced all who came within their hearing as murderers, cut-throats, thieves, etc., declared themselves U. S ~ Deputy Marshals, said they had come to this country to hang every God·-damned Mormon, President and Bishop, arid they would do it before they left, and when they were all out of the way, they would hang more. They swore that we should ere long see every God·-damned Mormon president and Bishop dangling in the air with a rope round his neck looking up to Heaven. They then went to the Bishop's house but were intercepted by the mayor who advised them to be on their way.. One of them drew his revolver, cocked it, and aimed it at the mayor, saying, "God damn you, I'll shoot you." The other "deputy marshal" seized the muzzle and pushed it up just as it fired, burning his hand in the process. Then the two "deputies'' commenced riding up and down the street with drawn revolvers, aiming at one and then at another discharging several ineffectual shots and winding up the program by shouting at the top of their voices, three cheers for Judge Cradlebaugh, three groans for Cumming, the God-damned old Jack Mormon. Moving to March 27, we find Daniel H. Wells asking Governor Cumming, "what should be done if that army moved into this city, as from threats made by Military Officers and others, it is evident that their intention is to try and harrass and arrest Brigham Young, and it is also evident that were he in their hands, he would be massacred and that the people would not submit to have President Young dragged into a Military Court and murdered." Although verifiable events such as those mentioned above had their impact, rumor had a still greater effect. Let us look at a few examples of the kinds of rumor that circulated among the Mormons 83 in early 1859. On March 11 it was said in Manti that persons in that area were going to be seized by soldiers, taken to Camp Floyd, and then lynched. On March 23, Judge Cradlebaugh was said to be talking of "seizing the church records, thinking to find in them some clues to the names of those who have committed evil deeds in the Territory." The following rumors were recorded for just one day, April 22, 1859: -Seth Blair said he was watched about the city last night; he swore their tracks should be marked with blood if they undertook it again. -Blair reported that men from California told him there was a regiment of one thousand men on the way from California. -Another rumor was that "a company of volunteers from Arkansas and Missouri are coming over the mountains to Iron County to use up the folks there." -Three regiments from Camp Floyd were coming to occupy the city in consequence.of disclosures made by prisoners "who had ropes put round their neck and hung until they made confession that the Mountain Meadow Massacre was perpetrated under orders of Gov. Young." -Fifty soldiers were in Springville looking for men "for whom they had writs." -Three regiments were damped at the point of the mountain la$t night, a rumor "said to be authentically substantiated." -An apostate was heard to say that "the people here must leave this city or.get killed." -A messenger was said to have gone from Gen. Johnston warning Governor Cumming that unless he "attended to the case of the Mormons immediately he [the General] should take the matter into his own hands." -"It was rumored that 5 marshalls started from Ca.mp Fl~yd yesterday, sworn to arrest Bill Hickman or kill him on the spot." 84 -Judge Cradlebaugh was said to have started for Iron County with three hundred or four hundred dragoons to make arrests. The rumor continued to report that they had eleven Indians as guides and 11 several gamblers deputized as marshals." -Judge Sinclair was reported to have said "he would not leave Camp Floyd unless he had a large escort of soldiers to accompany him." According to one report, the gentiles at Camp Floyd were planning to organize vigilante committees. The atmosphere was one of apprehen- sion and hostility akin to the Great Fear. The Mormons were bound to be nervously attentive to prosecutions, especially those backed up with movements of troops. In the collective memory of the Mormons were the experiences of Missouri and Illinois, resentment at the failure, of the U.S. government to protect their lives and property, and distrust of a legal system that had produced dozens of "vexatious lawsuits" and had ultimately allowed their leaders to be lynched while under the supposed protection of the law. Such emotional reverberations had been set in motion and heightened during the Utah War. his diary on March 20: "Missouri, Car~hage Elias Smith recorded in and Nauvoo are still fresh in the minds of thousands and with a mob court held without authority of law backed up by the army of the United States ... they have no fellowship and they feel like preparing for the worst." 4 On Marc,h 21, , Daniel H. Wells compared the anticipat~d arrest of Brigham Young with 'the event which took Joseph and Hyrum Smith to Carthage Jail. On March 24, Brigham Young told Governor Cumming that "the Mormon people woiild not tamely submit to a repetition of the Carthage Massacre .... " 85 Many Mormons could not disassociate the federal officials from the part which these unsavory associations had in the behavior of the troops who had brought them, of the sutters, freighters, and camp followers. As the official Mormon manuscript put it: A large portion of the officers are men of intemperate and grossly licentious habits and the soldiery are enlisted from the dregs of the foreign emigration that lank on our shores. There are several hundred men who have been discharged here by the government, who have no means of subsistence except by stealing; they have gambled away and otherwise squandered their earnings and are now ready to rob or commit any other crime to obtain their subsistence, and this outrage on the community will probably cause the citizens of this territory the loss of many thousand dollars worth of property and expense in bringing to justice and taking care of the thieves." Writing on January 12, 1859, John Taylor was willing to concede that the army had behaved "generally with propriety," but the army followers_suttlers and clerks, teamsters, blacklegs and gamblers and all the other amiable adjuncts of an army still prowl around like so many cormorants or beasts of prey •••• I believe that if all who have been unfortunate in crossing the river Styx, and if hell itself had been raked, a more mean, miserable, low and degraded set of miscreants, rascals, and sneaks could not have been found.. We read that 'hell from beneath is moved to meet them at their coming.' In this case it is reversed, hell has boiled over and the scum has floated among us. The reputation rubbed off on the government officals as well. Even Governor Cumming, who was the most friendly of the officials, was described in these rather unkindly terms: Gov. Cumming is tub built, so that he seldom can get liquor enough aboard, but that he can carry it; at times he may not be inaptly compared to a whiskey barrel in the morning and a barrel of whiskey at night; his memory is frequently at fault in consequence of his inebriety. 86 John Harnette, Secretary of the Terri.tory, was said to be "not fit for business more than three hours in a day, in consequence of his habits of inebriety .. " Cradlebaugh was "not sociable with anybody, his most familiar friend being the bottle." Worst of all, it appears, was Judge Sinclair, who was "frequently intoxicated" and whose nlooks bear evidence of debauchery." As John Taylor wrote: His Honor Judge Sinclair affects great gravity in court which he gravely carries out when off the bench with the exception of some little inequalities on the road and sidewalks fly up and hit his honor on the forehead. This is really too bad and ought to be inquired into. His honor found fault, so rumor says, with a gentleman for smiling in court and threatened to punish for a repetition of the same. How he can put up with the aforesaid insults, it is difficult to determine. It is to be hoped that the posts, streets and houses will be indicted for insulting the United States in the person of his honor. Today we would undoubtedly consider Sinclair an alcoholic. It is appropriate to examine some more moderate voices. ernor Alfred Cumming was the most important of these. Gov- Cununing re- ceived a report from Provo written by Silas Smith on March 8, immediately after the arrival of the troops. On the fourteenth he arrived in Provo, conducted a kind of investigation, and wrote a statement to General A. J. Johnston advising the removal of the troops. A massive petition was addressed to the Governor two days later, the same date General Johnston wrote to reject the Governor's demand. Angered, Cumming responded by writing to the Secretary of State (March 25) and issuing a proclamation (March 27). In essence, the 87 Governor's position was to deny the supposed need for the troops. "All these military movementso ... have been made without sufficient cause. There has been no 'opposition,' nor any just cause to ex- pect opposition, on the part of the inhabitants •••. " More important, I think, in explaining the Governor's reaction was that the troops had been moved in without consulting him, an action he saw as "in opposition to both the letter and spirit of my instructions." Finally he agreed that the presence of the troops had a "tendency not only to terrify the inhabitants and disturb the peace of the Territory, but also to subvert the ends of justice by causing the intimidation of witnesses and jurors." Cradlebaugh undoubtedly saw Cunnning as a "dupe" of the Mormons, but it can be said that the Governor was anxious to reestablish peace and order in the Territory. While sympathetic to the need to prosecute those guilty of crimes, he was sensitive to the need to move carefully, using territorial machinery where possible and retaining public confidence. The clash of jurisdiction between the Governor and the military and judicial federal appointees was explosive; to the Governor's credit he attempted to calm Mormon fears, made his position known, sought further clarification, and patiently waited for a ruling from his superiors. We have already noticed that in some ways President Brigham Young was fearful, reflecting the sense of insecurity stemming from the Utah War. He was also capable, however, of exercising restraint and urging caution. For example, consider the following: 88 10 March CoL Little will go to Provo "to assist in smoothing the rough edges, and in keeping things quiet, he being favorably acquainted with many of the officers ... " Young agreed with Cumming that "it is the best policy to endure their insults and abuses, rather than condescend to resent them. They have evidently gone to Provo designing to raise a muss. We trust they will be disappointed. Their plans will again be frustrated, if the brethren will be wise, •..• " 15 March "It is perfectly apparent to all who reflect carefully, that the foul-mouthed scurtility, ribaldry and profanity so commonly indulged in by some of the persons illegally and caselessly thrust upon Provo, are practised on purpose to evoke tumult and riot, purely to gratify the evil and harm those who would do right. "I know of no way so effectual in foiling their designs as to let them,severely alone, except so far as to use such means as you already have, and other like means for the removal of a nuisance so high handedly imposed upon you, but words are wind, ap.d it is easy to pass on the other streets, and then if the officers do not restrain their men and ,confine them strictly to the locality and duties which Judge Cradlebaugh has set forth in his charge, and other remarks and 'letters, at once enter complaint properly authenticated to the proper officers, and exercise the utmost forbearance till the nuisance can be removed upon the plan above named." It is true that sometimes Young came near to losing his "cool." By March 24 an additional one thousand troops had been called out in Provo. Witnesses were being e;athered, and some had been seized. That day a petition arrived stating that one Captain Turnley had abused a Mormon and said "that Brigham Young should be hung on the highest tree" and that the soldiers "intended to do it." Some 89 obvious impatience is suggested by Young's message to Governor Cumming that the Mormons would not submit to a repetition of the Carthage Massacre, that if the Governor did not protect the people . they would protect themselves, and that "the army could be corralled in three days .. " At the same time, however, Young's clerk added: "The President thinks that this whole affair will fizzle out." Cradlebaugh didn't exactly fizzle out. After dismissing the grand jury on March 22--they had been in session just two weeks-he continued to hold the court. Indictments were not numerous, but he did vigorously pursue witnesses and at times had those called as wi.tnesses thrown into the "walking calaboose" to await their own trial. It was during the closing days of the month, when such men as BG F. Bullock, Mayor of Provo, had been seized, that teri.sioµ became extremely intense. City P,Olice were doubled or even tripled. The additional force of a thousand troops with artillery came and camped on the outskirts of the city. Meanwhile, Mormons who thought they might be summoned made themselves scarce. To Cradlebaugh this was positive proof that they were guilty of crimes; their own explanation was that they didn't trust him: he was so determined to convict Mormons that he stooped to duplicity and underhanded behavior in getting people into court and could not be counted upon to give a fair trial. A letter to George Q. Cannon dated March 21, 1859 summed up the Mormon view of Cradlebaugh's behavior: "The Judge turns loose persons who are indicted for offenses instead of suffering the 90 law to be executed upon them"--the reference is to two Indians accused of rape·--"for the sake of waging a religious persecution against an innocent people." A letter from John L. Smith dated March 26 gives a glimpse into how the court was operating: The one-eyed Jeffreys [Judge Cradlebaugh] continues his court in the Star Chamber. He has issued twentyfive subpoenas for witnesses not one of which could be found. Attempts were made to buy witnesses with an outfit for California .... Every man who hears that he is to be subpoenaed and many others, leaves his business and.flees. This Military Court is producing many of the disasters of an Indian war by scattering men from their farms and other occupations for fear of a Military arrest, as it is understood that all those whom Judge Cradlebaugh sees fit to commit are to be taken to Camp Floyd and kept in irons until the next court convenes. The refusal of most Mormons to cooperate by appearing as witnesses was explained by George A. Smith on March 30 in the following simple statement: "I have no doubt but that the Sheriff or Marshal could have made all arrests, and secured the attendance of all witnesses without any difficulty, had not the military power superceded the civil." With the conclusion of the court at Provo the first week of April, Cradlebaugh started moving into other areas and gathering testimony. His prime concerns, it seems, were the so-called Potter- Parrish murders, which he saw as an example of Mormon "blood atonement," and the massacre at Mountain Meadows, which he was correctly convinced was not the result of a simple Indian attack. In neither 91 case did he succeed in his desire to implicate Brigham Young, but some of the testimony he gathered regarding the massacre did prove of value in the later trials of John Do Lee and in the schblarly investigation of Juanita Brooks in this century. Given his pre- disposition and zeal, Cradlebaugh must have felt greatly frustrated and disappointed at the results. But he did accumulate testimony: "Sitting, as a committing magistrate, complaint after complaint was made before me, of murders and robberies .... " Those he specified included five incidents of murder, of which he was confident that the Mormons were guilty. Cradlebaugh's ultimate disappointment came with a letter from U. S. Attorney General Jeremiah S. Black. To assess its importance, we must remember the apparent conflict of instructions in Utah be~ tween the Governor and the military and the fact that letters had gone to Washington from both Cumming and the judges. It.was the April 7 letter of Cradlebaugh and Sinclair to President James Buchanan to which Attorney General Black gave the following response: Gentlemen: The President ~as received your joint letter, He has carefully considered it, as well as all other advices relating to the same affair, and he has directed me to give you his answer. · The condition ·of things in Utah made it extremely desir~ able that the judges appointed for that Territory should confine themselves strictly w!thin their own official sphere. The government had a district attorney, who was charged with the duties of a public accuser, and a marshal, who was responsible for the arrest and safe-keeping of criminals. For the j~dges, there was nothing left except to hear patiently 92 the causes brought before them, and to determine them impartially, according to the evidence adduced on both sides. It did not seem either right or necessary to instruc!_ you that these were to be the limits of your interference with the public affairs of the Teritory, for the executive never dictates to the judicial department .... The governor is the supreme executive of the Territory. He is responsible for the public peace. From the general law of the land, the nature of his office, and the instructions he received through the State Department, it ought to have been understood that he alone had power to issue a requisition for the movement of the troops from one part of the Territory to another; that he alone could put the military forces of the Union and the people of the Territory into relations of general hostility with one another. The instructions given to the commanding general by the War Department are to the same effect. Here the Attorney General differentiates between a "summons" (which either governor or judges could issue in case of immediate threat, a "verbal call") and a "reoui.sition" (a written request for troops to be used in a 11 specified service.") thus to requisition troops. Only the governor was entitled The statement continues: It ~as the duty of the marshal to see that the prisoners were safely kept and forthcoming at the proper time. For aught that appears, the marshal wanted no troops to aid him, and had no desire to see himself and his civil posse_ displaced by a regiment of soldiers. He made no complaint of weakness, and uttered no call for assistance. Under such circumstances,. it was a mistake of the judge to interfere with the business at all. The letter went on to deny that any need for troops had been established, to express determination that crimes should be punished as lon-gas this was done "in the regular and constitutional way" and that the attorney general of the territory should lead out in such 93 prosecution~ Lest there be any misunderstanding, the letter closed with a series of five staccato statements which amounted to a sharp condemnation of Cradlebaugh's actions. Since the Cradlebaugh affair had from the beginning involved relations between the civil authorities and the military, between judiciary and the executive, and between federal appointees and territorially elected officers, it is not surprising that a simple ruling by the Attorney General failed to end the matter. O~ Jqly 16, Cradlebaugh and Sinclair wrote again, rejecting the ruling and, among other things, charging the district attorney with negligence. Alexander Wilson immediately responded to the accusation in a full statement describing his action in minute detail. In a sense, the jurisdictional questions continued throughout the territorial period, ebbing and flowing with the personnel, the changing· statutes dealing with polygamy, and the different degrees of determination to prosecute. What the Cradlebaugh affair did, as early as 1859, was to dramatize inherent irreconcilables in Utah. It also demonstrated the powerful influence of fears and assumptions on both sides, and the inadvisability in such an overheated atmosphere of using extreme methods almost certain to be counterproductive, at least until the possibilities of due process and cooperation had been thoroughly exhausted. FOOTNOTES . 1 Unless otherwise indicated, the quotations and information :i.n the present paper are derived from the documents and sources listed in the bibliography. A useful treatment placing the event in the context of territorial politics is Charles S. Peterson, "A Historical Analysis of Territorial Government' in Utah Under Alfred Cumming, 1857-1861" (M .. A. thesis, Brigham Young University, 1958). 2Brigham Henry Roberts, Comprehensive History of the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints_, 6 vols. (Salt Lake City, 1930), 4:454-55. 3Ibid., 4 :491. 4El;i.as Smith Diary, LDS Church Archives, March 20., 1859. DOCUMENTS RELATING TO THE CRADLEBAUGH AFFAIR 1. Cumming to Cass 5 Novembe.r 1858 ,•.:: 2. Cumming to Cass 9 October 1858 -;'.:; 3. Cumming to Cass 28 January 1859 ";~ 4. Cradlebaugh to Porter 6 March 1859 If 5. Cradlebaugh to Jury 8 March 1859 DNW, 3-16-59 6. Silas Smith to Cumming 8 March 18.59 JH 7. George A. Smith to George Q. Cannon 9 March 1859 JH 8. John Kay to Cumming 9 March .1859 JH 9. George A. Smith to John L. Smith 10 March 1859 JH 10. Brigham 10 March 1859 JH 11. Provo citizens to city council 10 March 1859 ,•.:: 12. Provo Mayor and Council to Cumming 11 March 1859 '~ Young to George A. Smith 95 13. Provo Council to Cradlebaugh 11 March 1859 14. Cradlebaugh to Provo Council 12 March 1859 Grand Jury to Cradlebaugh 13 March 1859 MS.H. 16. Brigham Young to George A. Smith 15 March 1859 JH 17. Rejoinder of Provo Council 15 March 1859 * 18. Spanish Fork citizens to Cradlebaugh * 19. Payson citizens to Cradlebaugh 18 March 1859 JH 20. Anonymous letter from Provo 20 March 1859 JH 21. Cumming to Johnston 20 March 1859 * 22. John L. Smith to Richard Bentley 21 March 1859 JH 23. Brigham Young to George Q. Cannon 21 March 1859 JH 24. Utah citizens to Cununing 22 March 1859 * 25. Johnston to Cununing 22 March 1859 * 26. Cradlebaugh dismissal of jury 22 March 1859 DNW, 3-30-59 27. Grand jury protest 22 March 1859 DNW, 3-30-59 28. Cununing to Cass 25 March 1859 * 29. John L. Smith to Richard Bentley 26 March 1859 JH 30. Cumming proclamation 27 March 1859 * 31. George A. Smith to Stenhouse 30 March 1859 JH 32. Cradlebaugh on Cumming mat ion ,30 March 1859 JH 33. Cumming to Cass 31 March 1859 * 34. A. F. McDonald statement 2 April 1859 JH 35. William Wall affidavits 5 April 1859 JH procla~ * * 96 36., Cradlebaugh and Sinclair to 7 April 1859 ll 8 Apri.1 18.59 JH 18 .April 1859 .JH Buchanan 37. George A. Smith to Stenhouse 38. Petition f cr 39. John Jacques to Stcnhouse 22 April 1859 JH 40. Brigham Young meeting with Cumming 21.i, April 1859 .TH May 1859 ~ soldi~~rs to stay 41. Cass to Cumming '~ L 42. Bishop David Evans letter 5 May 1859 .JH 43. Secretary of War to .Johnston 6 1859 'l.: 44. Cumming to John Kay 9 :t~'la\r 1859 -.k 45. Cumming to Cass 12 j\-fuj/ 1859 'J-~' 460 John Kay to Currnning 16 ~·ia"".-i 1859 ~k 47. Black to Cradlebaugh and Sinclair 17 May 1859 fl 48 Black to Wilson 17 May 1859 II 49. Cumming to Cass 19 May 18.59 ~·~ 50. Dotson to Cradlebaugh 3 June 1859 .JH 51. Cradlebaugh to Pres. Buchanan 3 June 1859 JR 52. Cradlebaugh anq Sinclair to Buchanan 53. 16 July 1359 fl • Dotson to Buc.hanan .I. resigna-- t ion) l August 18S9 u August 1859 * i:: 54. Grand jurv.l at Nephi 55. Eckels to Cass 27 Se:~·tember 56. Wilson to BJ.2ck l.) 1 [" Novembc1 1859 II 57. Cass to Cumming 2 December 1859 1, 1859 & M. 97 58. Cumming to Cass 59. Black to Buchanan 28 March 1860 60. Buchanan to Senate 3 April 1860 DNW ~ 2 February 1860. Deseret News Weeklv. JR - Journal ,History. A multi-volume compilation of primary source material for the Historical Department of The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day _Saints. For this period,, the Journ?l History is in large measure a typing of the Manuscript History, which i+i turn is a handwritten multi"'."'volume work kept by the clerks of Brigham Young. MS.H. - Manuscript History of Brigham Young, LDS Church Archives, Salt Lake City. *U.S., Congress, House, Message of the President of the United States connnunicating, in compliance with a resolution of th~ House_, copies of correspondence relative to the conditions of affairs in the Territory of Utah, Ex. Doc.7&, 36th Cong., lsE sess., 1860. .. lfu. S. , Congress, Senate, Nessage of the Pre.sident of the United States, communicating, in compliance with a resolution of the Senate, the correspond.ence between the judges of Utah and the Attorney Ge;neral or Pre~ident, with reference to the legal proceedings and cond~tions of affairs in that Territory, Ex. Doc. 32, J6th Cong. , 1st sess. ,1860. U & M -- John Cradlebaugh, Utah and the Mormons: . Sueech delivered in the House of Representatives February7,_1863. Published as an undated pamphlet. Also in U.S., Congress, Congressional Globe, 37th Cong., 3d. sess., 1863, 62:119-25. PUBLIC SCHOOLS AS A VEHICLE OF SOCIAL ACCOMMODATION IN UTAH: THE STRANGERS WITHIN OUR GATES Frederick S. Buchanan University of Utah and Raymond G~ Briscoe Westminster College Within a few years of the se·ttlement of Utah by :Mormon emigrants, an editorial in the De.seret News called attention to the problems which were arising with the increasing diversity of the· populatiort.· Gathered as they were from European nations and the British Isles, these Mormon settlers i:vere a microcosm of the diver . ·s:i.t,y Joµnd.in the nation as a whole~ There was one essential dif- ference, however, in this particular editorial plea for unity~ Whereas in other parts of the United States such unity might have been based on p;3.triotic sentiments, in Utah those T!;rho thought of themselves first as Swedes, Germans, Danes, English, Scots, Irish, Caµadian or.Yankees were held guilty of having "fallen short of the Savior's rule; you· are not one with the brethren, 11 and they were cautioned to be ''like little children~ and learn to do their master's Wl·11 • 111 When Apostle Erast'US Snow visited Utah~s Iron County settlement in 1852, he was chagrined to find national factions developing among the Scottish, Welsh, English and 1\merican settlers. Many years be-· fore the melting pot metaphor became popular as an expression of 99 American assimilation of emigrants, Snow "undertook to put all these parties through the furnace and run out a party of Saints for the Kingdom of God." 2 Unity of purpose was, of course, necessary for Mormon survival whether confronted with a hostile rhysical environment or unbelieving "Gentiles," as non-Mormons were designated. long-term success of this policy is quite evident: sociologist Thomas O'Dea has defined them as "a people" and geographer D. Meinig has said of them: The w. "As a group they constitute a highly self~ conscious subculture whose chief bond is religion and one which has long eptablished its mark upon the life and lanciscape of a particular area., i.e., Utah and parts of surrounding states. 113 They achiev-· ed the status of a "self-conscious subculture" by emphasizing and reinforcing their religious distinctiveness at every opportunity and pursuing a vigorous proselyting policy. This missionary zeal to maintain Mormon boundaries and expand them by converting "outsiders" has been and still is a persistent feature of Mormon thought and practice and sometimes results in nonMormons perceiving themselves as excluded and discriminated against. Faced with what seems to be solid Mormon devotion to their cause, the non-Mormon in Utah regards himself as a member of an out-group which does not shar.e t.he Mormon commitment and may, therefore, feel threatened or penalized by his lack of membershiJ? in the dominant . ..... group. 4 in What ·is being suggested here is that non--Mormons in Utah 100 comprise a minority group which perceives itself as discriminated against because of the dominant Mormon influence. The extent of this discrimination may be limited compared with that faced b.v Chicanos, Native Americans or Blacks, but, nonetheless, in a democratic society the seriousness of discrimination is not measured enti.rely by numbers involved. The Amish, for instance, are a ve.ry small segment of the population, but the Supreme Court in Wisconsin vs. Y<_?E!?:E_ still upheld their right to be. free of educational infringements on their religious liberties. The focal point of the Amish conflict with the larger society was the Amish claim that secular public schools threatened their existence as a group by encouraging their children to accommodate themselves· to the values of the secular society. 5 Similar criticism has been leveled at public schools by other ethnic minorities. For some, ihe public schools are much too successful as vehicles for assimilating and socializing minority youth into the dominant middle-class culture which pervades the public schools. There is no reason to believe that Utah's public schools are any different in this regard, but a factor which is unique to Utah is the dominant role which individual Mormons play in formulating and implementing school -policies. Coupled with this is the pervasive influence which the institutional Mormon Church has (or is perceived to have) on the community and ultimately on the community's creature, the public schools. Some non-Mormons view with alarm the possibility 101 of the public schools being indirectly a means of promoti.ng Mormon values and of acting as agents of social accommodation in a way different from the general run of secular schools. It is to that con- cern that we now turn our attention. A memo prepared for new faculty and students moving into Utah by Dr. Noel de Nevers of the University of Utah.vs College of Engineering lists the public school as a major source of friction between outs;Lders and the Mormon cmrnnunity beca(lse "the children of nonMormons are occasionally subjected to social pressures in the schools as a result of clearly being members of a minority group." 6 Dr. de Nevers goes on to suggest that newcomers should find a place to live "which is not exclusively or almost exclusively Mormon and in which your children will not be the only non-Mormon children :Ln their class." 7 Apparently an "integrated" neighborhood in which Mormons and non-Mormons are more equally distributed is seen as the most desirable locality for Utah's non-Mormons. Much of the "evidence" for the claim by some non-Mormons that the public schools situation reinforces Mormon values and practices is admittedly of an anecdotal character and on those grounds may be suspect. However, there seems to be enough of it to suggest an issue of which educators and others are only dimly aware. George King, a student at Brigham ~oung In 1970 University, surveyed a number of non-Mormon residents in the Provo area and published the results of his survey in Brigham Young University's Daily Universe. 8 102 An Orem elementary student, daughter of the local Lutheran minister, is surrounded at recess and subjected to chants and catcalls which include the fact that she is not a "Mormon." The child comes home repeatedly hurt and upset. The Minister finds it necessary to make a visit to a school principal. The chants subsequently cease. In another school in Utah county the children are taught to pray together with folded arms~ The young daughter in an Episcopalian family, who has learned to pray with her hands cupped, refuses to comply. The teacher tries to force the matter and the parents finally have to intervene. On the junior high school level, the s.on of a local Baptist minister refuses to dance during the gym hour because it is against his religious beliefs. The gym teacher responds bytelling him that he will nget in that gym and dance--or else." The boy reacts by losing himself among the other students and leaving through the back door of the building, to arrive home frustrated and upset.9 One Catholic mother reported to this writer that she felt that Catholic athletic teams were subjected to a great deal of verbal abuse when competing with "Mormon" (public) schools. In.fact!! she claimed that "obvious bias" existed even, to the tallying of fouls during basketball games and penalties during football games. Students have claimed that some basketball coaches have given preference to active Mormons in recruiting teams--non-Monnons and inactive Mormons being d:f_squalified. Such clai~s must, of course, be viewed in the context of the intense emotions aroused by competition in sports, but it is, nonetheless, significant that some non-Mormons interpret what might be a usual ·Occurrence at sports events elsewhere as· religious bias when it occurs in Utah. Other factors which tend to give credence to the belief of 103 non-Mormons that public schools in Utah are in many respects "church" schools include: -the dearth of non-Mormon personnel among th~ top echelons of state and district school administrators -the relatively small number of non-Mormon teachers in areas of high non-Mormon population -the practice of asking (directly and indirectly) the religious affiliation of applicants for school positions -the ubiquitous "punch" bowl and lack of coffee at "public" school functions -the granting of academic credit for the study of the Bible in Mormon seminaries on the grounds that study is not Mormon oriented -the use of Mormon language and phrases in the schools; "all those in favor manifest it. by the usual' sign," "brothers and sisters," "the Ward," and "the Church."lO In 1973 an ~ssistant superintendent of a county school district discovered that an elementary school was in the habit of dismissing early for "Primary"· (the Mormon organization for children under twelve) to allow the students to reach the church on time. As this is in viola- tion of state law, he instructed the principal to hold_ school the required length of time. Parents immediately protested, the Superintendent intervened, and the practice of early dismissal continued. Some Mormon teachers have a need to know who is and who isn't 104 a Mormon and adopt ingenious ways of finding out, such as asking, "How many children go to Primary after school?" In one school, Mormon children were excused early for Primary while others were required to take music! The foregoing kinds of "evidence" I;"egarding non-Mormon perceptions of the influence of Mormonism in Utah's public schools is highly anecdotal and, therefore, subjective. In order to increase the objectivity with which this issue is viewed, a survey pf 397 persons living along the Wasatch Front was conducted in the spring of 1974. 11 The population sampled consisted of 242 Mormons, 82 Protestants, 30 Catholics, 21 persons of other of no religious affiliation. ~eligions, and 22 The purpose of the survey was to deter- mine the extent to which respondents perceived the schools to be active agents of accommodation to Mormon culture as far as nonMormon students were concerned. Respondents were first asked, "Do you feel school teachers make an attempt to find out what religion individual students prefer or belong to?" The answers to this question are detailed in Table I, page 106. More than one in four of all respondents felt that teachers do attempt to determine student religious preferences with less than two-thirds inclined to the belief that teachers don't do this very often or at all. When the LDS response is compared with other religious groups, it appears that fewer LDS perceive teachers as 105 making efforts to determine student beliefs.than respondents of other religions. Only one out of five LDS (2Ll percent) felt that this occurred very often, compared with one out of four Catholics (26.7 percent) and one out of three Protestants (37.8 percent). The group with the strongest positive response to this question was composed of respondents with no religious preference; four out of ten (40o9 percent) believed that it was a common occurrence for teachers to find out students' religious preferences. Of those who did believe that teachers do act in this way, more than onethird (36.2 percent) suggested that teachers directly asked students what their religious preferences were. Other examples of teachers' attempts to determine students' beliefs included casual reference to LDS Church activities or beliefs in the classroom, references to the LDS seminary system, and requests for religious preference on school forms and during private conversations. Some respondents mentioned that teachers inquired as to who had "Mutual" (the Mormon youth organization), so that homework would not be assigned on that evening; or asked students to talk about "Primary." One person reported that, ·"I had to raise my hand every year to identify myself as a non-LDS, as did my children while in Salt Lake schools ten years ago." The foregoing data indicate that a significant number of persons (more than one in four of the group interviewed) perceive the school situation as one which promotes differentiation of students on the 106 TABLE I RESPONDENTS' REPLIES AS TO WHETHER SCHOOL TEACHERS ATTEMPT TO DISCOVE.R STUDENT RELIGIOUS PREFERENCES Number of Respondents Yes, All the Time Yes, Quite Of ten No, Not Very Of ten No, Not At All Don't Know Catholic 30 6.7 20.0 38.8 21.1 13.5 Protestant 82 6.1 31. 7 32.9 12.2 17 .1 242 2.1 19.0 44.2 22~7 12.0 Other 21 4.8 23.8 28.6 33.3 9.5 None 22 4.5 ---- 36.4 31.8 -22.7 -- 4.5 3.9 22.6 38.8 21.1 13.5 LDS TOTAL 397 TABLE II RESPONDENTS' REPLIES AS TO WHETHER SCHOOL TEACHERS PURPOSELY REVEAL THEIR RELIGIOUS PREFERENCES TO THEIR STUDENTS Number of Respondents Yes, All the Time Yes, Quite Often No, Not Very Often No, Not At All Don't Know Catholic 30 6.7 33.3 30.0 13.3 16.6 Prote$tant 82 3.7 28.0 35.4 13.4 19.5 242 2.1 15.3 38.8 31.8 12.0 Other 21 9.5 14.3 42.9 19.0 14.3 None 22 9.1 397 3.4 27.3 19.9 40.9 37.3 13.6 4.6 9.1 14.7 LDS TOTAL 107 basis of their religious beliefs. The fact that a majority (60 percent) did not hold this belief should not, however, lead us to conclude that no problem exists. That some people believe that this practice is a frequent occurrence is in itself a problem, even if it occurs only rarely as the majority seem to believe. A similar configuration of beliefs was obtained when the question, "Do you feel teachers purposely make their religious preferences known to their students?" was asked. (Table II, page 106). Approximately one in four (23.3 percent) felt that teachers purposely make their religious preferences known to students. LDS respondents comprised 17.4 percent of this figure as compared with four out of ten Catholics (40 percent), almost one out of three Protestants (31.7 percent) and more than one out of three (36.4 percent) of those of "no religious" preference. Thus, as in the previous question, LDS respondents appeared least inclined to hold that the action studied occurred frequently. When those who had this perception were asked to give an example of such an incident, 21.5 percent suggested that teachers made statements in the classroom referring to their religious affiliation. Comments about their children on missions and about ward activities, and direct references in classroom lectures to their own religious affiliation· were among the ways of communicating religious preference. Discussions of LDS doctrines and of references to LDS values were perceived as other means of letting students know teacher religious 108 preferences. One respondent reported that a biology teacher required students to read a Mormon scripture (~he Pearl of Great Price), because it bet- ter illustrated the creation of the world than the Bible. Another told of Mormon teachers in health classes who made statements such as, "Since I'm a Mormon I don't drink or smoke." When those respondents who perceived teachers as introducing personal religious preferences into the classroom were asked what impact the practice had on them or their children, more than one out of four (27.3 percent) did not believe it had much impact. However, almost one out of every five (18.9 perc_ent) specifically stated that their children had feelings of alienation, inferiority and guilt as a resu.lt of references to religion in the classroom. Comments made in response to this question included: children had a feeling of being a distinct minority; social snubbing occurred in peer groups because of religious differences; in some cases it duced a steady tension in the classroom. pro~ A Mormon respondent said that "it still bugs me when religion is forced on someone or someone tries to pry about others' religion." According to one person, the practice had little impact on his children because they talked.about the issue at home. One parent said she didn't think her children cared, while another respondent believed that the issue did not become a serious concern until children went into junior high school. Some respondents (14 percent) perceived the practice as having 109 positive value because it helped students understand teachers better, students felt more at home with a teacher when they knew religious preferences, and it increased student appreciation of teachers. A former student commented that the practice "made me feel like I should be a better person than I wanted to be" and another said it motivated him to take a religion class. We have noted that almost 25 percent of the total population interviewed believed that teachers try to determine their student religious preferences or reveal their own personal religious preferences to students. A different configuration occurred when the question "Do Mormon ideas find their way into classroom teaching?" was asked. (Table III, page 112.) More than four out of ten (42.7 percent) suggested that Mormon ideas do find their way into the classroom very much or somewhat. Another one-fifth (19.4 percent) believed that it happened occasionally, while 16.7 percent held that it hardly occurred at all. As for the other questions, substantial differences occur between answers of LDS and non-LDS respondents. Fewer than one in ten (7.9 percent) of the LDS believed that Mormon ideas are frequently expressed in the classroom. In sharp contrast, more than twice that proportion of all religious or non-religious respondents expressed a similar statement. Protestants particularly showed significant dif- ferences from LDS; more than three times as many Protestants (25.6 percent) as LDS (7.9 percent) felt that Mormon ideas definitely do 110 find their way into the classroom. From the comments made in response to a related question, the most common source of reference to Mormons or Mormon ideas was viewed as history courses with one-third (32.2 percent) of the respondents identifying this particular school subject. Two-thirds of these references were made during a class in Utah history. Other circum- stances included social functions, the twice yearly LDS general conference sessions, President David O. McKay's death, and teacher references to "Mutual," "Primary>" and "Family Home Evening," all of which have particular Mormon associations. In science courses, references- were made to Mormon doctri'ne in explanation of scientific knowledge, and in some instances, the Mormon views were presented as being superior to Darwin's evolutionary theory. One respondent commented that Mormon teachers talked about the accomplishments of the early pioneers, but "they never talk about the Mountain Meadows Massacre." Another claimed that "I've heard the Mormons heavily criticized" by some teachers, and "have been preached the gospel" by Mormon teachers in the classroom. Mention was also made of the "Mormon" practice of praying before sports events, of referring to others as "brothers and sisters" and of the joking manner of non-LDS teachers toward "Mormons" in the schools. When asked ?ow they felt in general about these references to Mormonism being made in the school, almost half of the respondents (45.6 percent) did not know, or gave no answer. Another quarter 111 (23.3 percent) did not feel strongly one way or another, while 17.7 percent felt n~gative about the references, and 13.3 percent felt positive. As in other questions, LDS respondents had opposing viewpoints compared with the non-LDS population. Less than one in ten (9.9 percent) LDS made negative comments regarding this practice, while all of the others had at least twice as many negative conunents and most had three timeB as many negative comments. One in five LDS persons interviewed (19.4 percent) made positive references to this practice in contrast to the miniscule 3.3 percent of Catholics and 2.4 percent of Protestants who made positive comments. The final question asked in the course of this survey was, "Do you feel that Mormons control or do not control public education in the state of Utah?" The responses are listed in Table IV, page 112. One person in four (25.3 percent) felt that "Mormons" very much control public education in Utah, with another one-third (33.2 percent) believing that there was some significant contrpl of public education by the "Mormons." In other words, well over half of all respondents held the view that Mormons do control the schools to some degree. The largest difference in perception occurred once again between Mormon respondents and all the other groups. Only 12.4 percent of the LDS believed that Mormons controlled public education very much, whereas more than four times as many Protestants (52.4 percen~ 112 TABLE III RESPONDENTS' ASSESSMENTS OF PRESENCE OF MORMON IDEAS IN THE CLASSROOM Number of Respondents Very Much So SomeWhat Occasionally Hardly at All Don't Know and No Response Catholic 30 20.0 26.7 10.0 20.0 23.3 Protestant 82 25.6 18.3 18. 3 12.2 2.5.6 242 7.9 33.9 21.9 18.6 17.8 Others 21 19.0 28.6 19.0 14.3 19.0 None 22 22.7 22.7 13.6 13. 6 -.--- 397 14.0 28.7 19.4 16.7 LDS TOTAL 2"1. 2 , 21.8 TABLE IV RESPONDENTS' ESTUlATES OF MORMON CONTROL OF UTAH f'UBLIC EDUCATION Number of Respondents Very SomeDo Much what Not Control Control Control Do Not Control At All. Don't Know and No Response Catholic 30 36.7 36.7 6.7 .0 20.0 Protestant 82 52.4 25.6 4.9 .0 17.1 242 12.4 37.2 33.1 4.5 12.8 Other 21 42.9 19.0 14.3 .0 23.8 None 22 31.8 40.9 4.5 .o 22.6 LDS -~-- TOTAL 397 25.3 33.2 22.6 2.7 16.2 ------------- 113 held that opinion. While a few LDS (4.5 percent) suggested that "Mormons" do not exercise control at all, not one person among the other groups concurred with this assessment. As a follow-up on this last question, respondents who believed that some control was exercised were asked to specify how this was done. The single most frequently mentioned means of control was through LDS people holding positions of authority in the schools and other educational agencies. this as a source of control. One in five (19.7 percent) suggested Slightly over one in ten (10.8 percent) perceived control to be a function of the state's large Mormon population. Other perceived means of control included domination of teacher ranks by LDS, the seminary system, 1 2 and the influence of "Mormon" social values. One person commented that "there has neve'r been a situation in which Mormon values were threatened that Utah did not eventually hold to the Mormon viewpoint." The seminary system was mentioned as a factor in promoting Mormon dominance by all groups except LDS and Catho~ics; in fact, more LDS (2.5 percent) viewed seminary in this way than did Catholics (O.O percent). Less than one out of ten Protestants and others per- ceived seminary as a factor of control. About the same number Protestants (9.8 percent) and other groups expressed concern about the dominance of LDS teachers in the schools. The difference between LDS perceptions and those of other groups is once again evident in that while only 13.6 percent of LDS respond- 114 ents indicated that "1'1ormons" in position~ of educational authorit.y were a major expression of Mormon influence, more than twice as many non-Mormons (29.4 percent) had this perception. (1.2 percent) saw LDS influence in a positive light~ A small. number while negative comments about the perceived Mormon influence included: Mormon op- position to planned parenthood and sex education, inhibition of intellectual discussions on important social questions, and disciplin·ary measures taken against non-Mormon activities, such as drinking. Before attempting to interpret the foregoing data, the reader should be aware that this survey was a measure of perceptions about Mormon influence in the public schools. No attempt L; made to deter- mine whether the views expressed were a result of the respondent rs particular religious affiliation, nor can they bt~ int<;.rpreted as an index to the degree of discrimination based on religion which may or may not occur in some Utah public schools. The precise. cause and extent of actual discrimination will require much more detailed in.,... str\lmentation than was attempted in this study. Another caution should be kept in mind; the results were obtained in areas adjacent to the Wasatch Front, and any attempt to extrapolate the data to other parts of Utah or to the state as a whole would be inaccurate. With these caveats in mind, we will attempt to summadze the meaning of the data obtained in the survey. The most obvious aspect of the data derived from this survey is the difference in perception between LDS and all other groups. 115 LDS respondents were less inclined to perceive the school situation as one. which exposes children to "Mormon" influences through teachers, subject matter or casual coIIllllents. In every instance, the non- Mormon perception was much more negative than the Mormon, although, as has been noted, Protestants and Catholics do differ on some items, such as the extent to which seminary is a factor of Mormon domination in Utah schools. The overall tendency of Mormon.respondents to be less negative in their responses may be accounted·for bya natural unwillingness of any group to criticize its own religious values as reflected in the schools. For the Mormon child and the Mormon teacher who share cdIIllllon value.$, the extension of these values into the classroom is not perceived as an intrusion but a natural consequence of living up to one's religious commitment, not just on Sundays in church but on weekdays in school. One of the writers had an Amish man tell him that he saw no distinction between one's religious life and everyday life. For the. Amish, integrating the two is perhaps much easier because they have. been more successful in maintaining the boundaries between themselves and the world than have the Mormons. When public schools departed from the one-room schoolhouse model, the Amish dad not attempt to influence the schools but instead started to withdraw and.establish their own system. The Mormons, on the other hand, abandoned a parallel school system at the secondary level early in the. twentieth century and adopted Utah's public school system, 116 perhaps because they felt they were clearly able to influence it by virtue of their numerical superiority. Non~·McYCmons perceive the :Mormon influence, whether real or irnq.gine.d, as a factor in shaping Utah's schools today. When a question concerning the schools in general was asked (without reference to any religious issues) , the LDS response was generally much more favorably inclined toward the school program than were the responses of the non-Mo'rmon groups. Of course, if the data on the LDS are viewed as an expression of defensiveness, one might also say that the perceptions of non--Mormons are influenced by a similar disposition to be highly critical of almost any aspect of Mormon group life. If it were possible to correct for factors, perhaps the LDS would be more ~ritical th~se and the non-LDS somewhat less critical of the schools and of Mormon influence. As the data now stand, however, they lend support to the anecdotal accounts listed earlier i.n this paper and suggest that "Mormons" are perhaps unaware of the situation which many non-Mormons perceive as a problem in the schools. While it may very well be true that the issue is more crucial than Mormons perceive it to be and less crucial than non-Mormons perceive it to be, nevertheless when a majority group is unaware of the importance of minority _perceptions of discrimination based on racial, ethnic or religious grounds, that fact in and of itself becomes a significant issue ... This is especially so when it involves 117 publicly supported institutions, such as public schools which almost all children are compelled to attend. Such compulsion may be perceived by some non-Mormons as tantamount to being compelled to attend Mormon schools. While a few teachers might use the public schoolroom as a means of proselyting, most of the "Mormon" infiuence appar.ently stems from the hidden curriculum of casual comments regarding Mormon values and institutions, historical references (especially ·in the state mandated course on Utah history) and peer group interaction. The perceived impact which this influence has on the child differs from person to person: some cope with it by ignoring it; some may feel benefited by the challenge it gives them; some may· be converted ,while others experience feelings of alienation and inferiority , as a result of their religious affiliation ·being' u,sed as the basis of social discrimination. On the assumption that the development of each individual to his fullest is a legitimate goal of public education, anything which seems to promote individual dysfunction merits close scrutiny and cannot be dismissed on the grounds that only a few are affected. The Bill of Rights itself is an expression of formalized protection of minorities against majorities who very often ignore or are ignorant of minority needs and values. In Utah, as in other areas where a one-value orientation is dominant, it is to be expected that the influence of such a concen- 118 trated mass of true believers would be felt in the schools, which ·reflect the society. The Mormon's desire to ii1fh1ence his nor1- Mormon neighbors is but the expression of his devoutly held belief that his way of thinking is correct--not absolutely. relativ~ly correct, but Fa.ilure to make an effort to convert others would be; in a sense, an expression of lack of faith in the rightness of his position; that is, an admission that all religious systems ar~ eq~al­ ly valid in the sight of God. This perception promotes the view among Mormons that the non-Mormon is a legitimate target .for conver;.... sion,. much to the discomfiture of many non-Mormons who are satisfied with their own religious orientation. The "melting pot, 11 a concept utilized nationally in efforts to amalgamate the nation's d:iverst~ immigrant groups, makes a great deal of sense to the Mormon who sees his mission as one of bringing every-, one (or at least almos_!. everyone) into the fold--"unto a unity of the faith.'' On narrow theological grounds, religious ~luralisrn certainly cannot be actively promoted by most Mormons 5 even if it is accepted out of practical necessity. The Church of .Jesus Christ of Latter-Day Saints is vi.ewed as the "one true church~" and given the Mormon committment to missionary work we vrnuld not then be surprised to find that religious discrimination is perceived as a serious problem by some non-Monnons. The crucial dilemma for Utah's schools is promoting the notion of cultural pluralism in the face of a population where 119 th.e majority belongs to an aggressively active religious group which regards itself as the only true religion. The influence of such a connnitted group in Utah's public schools reinforces and intensifies the historic tendency of the American public school to function "as a deliberate instrument. to reduce cultural and religious differences," 13 a goal not at all incompatible with the Mormon drive for unity. Mormon influence on Utah's schools is not likely to diminish in the innnediate future. Indeed, some non-Mormons have reported that they enjoy living in Utah and admire the Mormon emphasis on family life, cooperation and cohesion. Early in this century, the "progressive" nature of Utah's schools was credited by national educators to the pattern of organization prevalent Church. 1 4 i~ the Mormon · In 1919, Utah gained national recognition for its "for- ward looking" school laws, which required the educators to supervise youth outside as well as inside the confines of the school and to keep a re,cord of the "use of narcotics, care of person, sleeping habits and kind and amount of recreation." Praised by national superintendents as a "call .to civic and moral righteousne~.s for all the youth, tr this educational effort, spearheaded by Dean Milton Bennion of the University of Utah, was described by one historian as "social uplift with a vengeance." 15 While some non-Mormons may identify with Mormon values and feel benefited by them others, as the survey indicates, perceive Mormon 120 influence as potentially detrimental to a pluralistic conception of society. However, if a manifest function of the American school is the socialization of society's children and if the school refleets the values of its dominant publics, it is perhaps to be ex~ pected that the latent function of Utah's schools is to socialize and promote accommodation to Mormon thought and practice within, of course, the frame of American core values. Nor should it be for- gotten that for Mormons to influence the schools in this way is consistent with the general notion of cultural pluralism and of competing value systems. Difficulties arise, however, when the majority consists of one exclusive group, as in Utah, and when the majority is unaware that it may be adversely affecting the minority's self-image or unwittingly .stifling the promotion of social and individual diversity which is at the heart of cultural pluralism. Needless to say, cultural pluralism does not require the minority to join the majority. Nor does sensitivity to others on the part of the majority mean that the "exclusive" group must lose its own identity. Actually, the more "culture" any of them has acquired, the more liberal or general his education has been, the fuller is his awareness of the values of the Out-groups, the freer are his powers to avail himself of them, and the more abundant are his means wherewith to comprehend and enjoy them. His equipment constitutes his cultural mobility; it renders him, mind and body, a cosmopolitan, literally a citizen of the world. Without ever losing his commitment to his home base, his citizenship, and his original culture, he is now also no stranger in any different country and culture.16 121 Similarly, awareness on the part of Mormon teachers of the need to be sensitive to the feelings of those children who are not Mormons can contribute to the development of a genuinely diverse public school experience for all children and might allay the fears of "Gentiles" who tend to regard Mormonism as perhaps more monolithic than it actually is. If members of in-groups can be convinced that one does not have to ·deny the faith of his fathers to practice a genuine cultural pluralism, then perhaps accommodation in Utah's schools can become' a positive building block in community relations rather than a means·of one group assimilating the other or'. of promoting hostility between groups or individuals. In the close confines of Utah public schools where students and teachers share· so many common values, 'it is very easy to be insensitive to those who do not ".belong" and who do not share the in-group's value preferences. conspi~a~! One does not have to believe in a theory to accept this as a problem: it is simply a social fact that in-groups tend to dominate out-groups and do so sometimes oblivious to the fact that the out-group is. not particularly anxious to become a part of the in-group. Some observers have noted that over the years the Mormons have accommodated themselves to the values of the secular society to the point of being indistinguishable (except for upturned coffee cups) from the rest of the larger society. The demands of ethnic minor- ities for the right to their own life style and those of non-Mormons 122 for their rights, could conceivably precipitate a Mormon reassertion of Mormonism's own uniqueness as a distinct minority within the larger culture. This, of course, could lead to further tensions be- tween groups in Utah's public schools, but it could also teach us much about the dynamics of interaction in a pluralistic society. The tensions of living in such a society should by this time be recognized as not only "natural" but also as necessary, not something to "get rid of," but something to work with as one of many variables. Perhaps the inevitability of such conflicts is what the Utah State Board of Education had in mind in 1970 when it adopted a resolution which stated: that students in all schools across the state be encouraged to accept the responsibility for learning and practicing the art of tolerance, empathy, and concern for others; and that both educators and students alike are urged to develop a sensitivity to the feelings and attitudes of others and that they work to gain an understanding and ;espect of cultures, races, religions, and ideologies.17 Some degree of social accommodation is no doubt necessary if men are to live together in a civilized state. In the past few years, the promotion by the public schools of social accommodation based on majority values has been vigorously challenged by racial and ethnic minorities. This challenge to the traditional function of the school as an agent of accommodation points to the need for continued research in Utah on such questions as: Are perceived estimates of Mormon influence based on non-Mormon bias or on factual 123 circumstances? bias? Are Mormon perceptions similarly based on Mormon Do non-'Mormon students exhibit marked differences in achieve- ment, social status or deviant behavior compared with Mormon counterparts? Is there a relationship between being Mormon or non-Mormon and "success" in terms of placement in teaching or administrative positions, grades, elected offices and scholarships? values fundamentally at variance Are Mormon with "American" values? Is there any difference in the public school treatment of ethnic minorities who are Mormons and those who are not? Do the perspectives of non- Mormons raised in Utah differ significantly from those of newcomers to Utah on Mormon influence? The data in this paper suggest some possible replies, but before definitive answers can be formulated regarding Utah's public schools as vehicles of social accommodati~n, researchers will have to continue asking penetrating questions about the form and process of interaction between Mormons and non-Mormons i.n Utah'. s public schools. REFERENCE NOTES 1. Deseret News, February 5, 1853. 2. Journal History, December 12, 1852, LDS Church Historical Department, Salt Lake City. 3. Thomas F. O'Dea, Sociology of ReUgion, (Englewood Cliffs, New Jersey, 1966), 70; D. W. Meinig, "The Mormon Culture Region ... ," Annals of the Association of American Geographers, 55 (1965): 191. 4. Horace M. Kallen, Cultural Pluralism and the 'American Idea, (Philadelphia: 1956), 33. 5. Frederick's. Buchanan, "Secular Schoolmen and Amish Aims,'' School and Society, 97 (February 1969): 104-106. 6. Noel de Nevers, "Suggestions for Outsiders Moving to Utah A Purely Personal View," (Mimeographed Memo, University of Utah, n.d.). 7. Ibid., p. 2. 8. Brigham Young University Daily Universe, April 28, 1970. 9. Ibid. 10. These instances have been derived from conversations with parents, students and teachers. From time to time, the "Letters to the Editor" in the Salt Lake Tribune reflect similar views of non-Mormons who are frustrated by the Mormon influence in Utah. Such letters are countered by Mormons writing in and telling the complainers that they don't have to live in Utah--a sort of "love us or leave us" response. 11. This survey was financed by a research grant from the Research Committee, University of Utah. The interviews were conducted by students from Westminster College. 12. The LDS Seminary is a religious education program based on the released-time principle. Seminary buildings are usually immediately adjacent to public high schools. Their close proximity has led some non-Mormons to assume wrongfully that they are financed by the public funds. 125 13. Fred W. Newmann and Donald W. Oliver, "Challenges to our Educational System," Religion and Public Education, Theodore R. Sizer, ed. (New York: 1967), p. 201. It should be noted that some Mormon leaders have given expression to a more universal interpretation of Mormonism and seem to suggest a greater regard for cultural and religious pluralism. See for instance, B. H. Roberts, Defense, of the Faith and the Saints, (Salt Lake City: 1907), pp. 512-14. 14. See, for instance, A. C. Winship, "From Twelve to Eighteen in School and Out," Journal of Education, 90 (Nov. 6, 1919): 458-60; Charles A. Prosser, "The Utah Program," Improvement Era, 23 (July 1920): 835-37. Winship and Prosser were nationally prominent educators, neither of whom were Mormons. Mr. Allen Payne, a Ph.D. candidate in Cultural Foundations of Education at the University of Utah, brought these references to our attention. 15. David B. Tyack, Turning Points in American Educational History, (Waltham, Massachusetts: 1967), p. 323. 16. Kallen, Cultural Pluralism, pp. 52-53. 17. Position Paper, Utah State Board of Education, August 21, 1970. (Emphasis added). A TEST OF FAITH: JANE ELIZABETH JAMES AND THE ORIGINS OF THE UTAH BLACK COMMUNITY Henry J. Wolfinger National Archives and Records Service Washington, D.C. It is well known that three Black slaves--Green Flake, Hark Lay, and. Oscar Crosby--accompanied the vanguard of Mormon pioneers who reached the Salt Lake Valley on July 22, 1847. Little attention, however, has been devoted to those early-day Black settlers who, despite their limited numbers, laid the basis for the development of Utah's Black community. The sources available for a study of the origins of this community are extremely scarce, especially when compared with the wealth of material relating to the Latter-day Saints. The recent discovery of several manuscripts relating to Mrs. Jane Elizabeth James, one of these Black pioneers, has led to this article. While publishing these manuscripts in their original form, the article also furnishes an introductory account of her life and offers suggestions for further study of Utah's nineteenth century Black community. 1 Of Jane E. James' formative years, little is known aside from the account given in her "Life Sketch." She was born Jane Elizabeth Manning, the daughter of Isaac and Eliza Manning, in the late 1810s or early 1820s. 2 Her birthplace was Wilton, Connecticut, a rural township with a population of less than two thousand, nestled on 127 the''Norwalk River about five miles north of the city of Norwalk. The Manning family~ which was free, included at least five children. Due perhaps to the death or departure of her father, Jane as a young girl was sent to reside in the household of Joseph Fitch, a 3 prosperous white farmer of Wilton. Here she seems to have worked as a servant, receiving instruction in Christian principles but little in the way of education or skills, for on arrival in Nauvoo she described her abilities ih terms of such domestic chores as cooking, washing; and ironing. Although she learned to read in later life, she probably never learned to write. An examination of her legal ·'transactions reveals 'that she often signed her name· by a mark and . that· she dictated her correspondence through friends. 4 Mormonism's first firm foothold in southwestern Connecticut developed from the missionary labors of Charles Wesley Wandell, who with an asspciat·e had· brought. the faith to Westchester County, New York, in 1841. From here, he and another associate pushed.across the border to proselytize in Connecticut where they received "great encouragement, doors being·freely opened to them in many places." 5 In December, 1841, the first converts were baptized in Norwalk, and four months later a branch was organized in the connnunity. By the fall of 1842 the branch contained forty-one members, some of whom had already immigrated to N~uvoo. Meanwhile, Wandell continued to preach in nearby townships such as New Canaan, Ridgefield, and Danbury. 6 It was probably during 128 these tours that Jane Elizabeth Manning met him and heard of the Prophet Joseph Smith, the revelations that he had received,the principles of the Mormon faith, and the city that had been established on the bank of the Mississippi River. She quickly converted to the new religion, and it is likely that she made her relatives acquainted with it, also, for a number of them adopted Mormonism for themselves. In other religions, conversion might be the final stage of professing faith, but in nineteenth century Mormonism it was but an initi.al step followed by the convert's departure from "Babylon" to "Zion," where he might join the faithful in the work of establishing the kingdom of God on earth. In a report on his missionary labors, Wandell furnished a reflection on the millennial expectations of the converts in southwestern Connecticut: The brethren here are very anxious to emigrate to Illinois; so you may expect to see all of us in Zion this Fall, that can possibly get there ...• ••.. Although at the May Conference, held in New York City, four o.f our members were ordained to the office of elder, yet we cannot fill the openings that are made. May the Lord raise up l~borers and send them forth, that the wheat may be speedily gathered into the Lord's garner, even Zion, that the chaff may be burned up by the brightening of his coming.8 Among those making preparations to immigrate to Nauvoo were the Mannings--a party that included Jane, her son Sylvester, her mother Eliza, two brothers, two sisters, a brother-in-law, and a sister-in-law. In early October, they departed with a larger group 129 of Saints under Wandell's direction. 9 The account of their separa- tion from the.main party, the perilous journey to Nauvoo, and Jane's introduction into the household of Joseph Smith needs no recapitulation, since Mrs. James described it vividly in her "Life Sketch." On reaching Nauvoo, the Manning party dispersed and established horn.es, except for Jane, who remained a member of Joseph Smith's household until shortly before his death. Meanwhile, controversy over the Mormons continued to rise in the region. The destruction of the Expositor, an anti-Smith newspaper that surfaced briefly in Nauvoo in the spring of 1844, was followed by the arrest of Joseph and Hyrum Smith and their subsequent murder in Carthage jail. This incident brought no permanent peace, and in the winter of 1845-46, following periods of near civil war, the Mormons abandoned Nauvoo , and retreated to Iowa. They settled at Winter Quarters, Nebraska, where the trek to the Rocky Mountains was organized. Given the turmoil of the period, which included schisms within the Church and numerous deaths among those who resided temporarily at Winter Quarters, only a remnant of the Nauvoo Mormons followed Brigham Young westward. Although most of the relatives who had accompanied Jane Manning to Nauvoo remained members of the Church 10 until the death of Joseph Smith, none joined the move to the Rockies. Before the abandonment of Nauvoo, Jane had married Isaac James, a free ~lack County, New Jersey. who had been born and raised in rural Monmouth He had converted to Mormonism while a young 130 man, apparently in 1839 at age nineteen, and was an early immigrant to Nauvoo. One of their sons, Silas F. James, was born June 10, 1846 following their flight from Nauvoo. 11 Following the departure of Brigham Young's vanguard in the spring of 1847, the main body of approximately fifteen hundred emigrants left their Winter Quarters encampment in mid-June. At the Elkhorn River they organized into companies known as "tens," "fifties," and "hundreds." The official departure of the compan- ies, marked by the ringing of the bell from the Nauvoo Temple, came on June 22, 1847. The size of the party posed problems, and it was soon decided that each company should travel singly, forming its own encampments and herding its own stock. The lead company for most of the journey was the Second Fifty of the First Hundred; the captain was Ira Eldredge and the members included Isaac and Jane E. James, together with their sons Sylvester and Silas. Crossing the plains, the company encountered a number of hardships. Forage often proved inadequate for the livestock, leading to a steady weakening of the teams of oxen. Suitable fords for crossing streams were sometimes difficult to locate. duststorms were apt to strike with little notice. Blinding Huge herds of buffalo furnished a source of fresh meat, but the beasts sometimes passed so close to the party that on one occasion they stampeded the livestock. This company, the Second Fifty of the First Hundred, camped 131 along the Green River on September 5, but the journey already had taken i.ts toll on the teams. Several days later, Captain Eldredge detached the First and Fifth Tens from his vanguard and directed them to proceed as quickly as possible to the Salt Lake Valley for reinforcements to assist those companies that had fallen behind. This advance force, which may have included the James family as members of the First Ten, reached the valley on September 19, 1847, while the other companies continued to arrive through the first week of October. 12 Fortunately, however, the snows that were to trap the Utah Expedition in the mountains a decade later were late arriving in 1847. As Mrs. James intimates, the family's first years in the Salt Lake Valley were marked by periods of poverty, times during which even the necessities of life were unavailable. The experiences of these years attested to the wisdom of pursuing a policy of cooperation and mutual aid, for the more fortunate of one season might be the less fortunate of the next. Although Mrs. James was forced to 13 beg aid of her neighbors on occasion, at other times she could exhibit charity, as the following account of Eliza Lyman, wife of Apostle Amasa M. Lyman, demonstrates: April 8th, 1849, we baked the last of our flour today, and have no prospect of getting more till after harvest. April 13th Brother Lyman started on a mission to California with Or[r]in Porter Rockwell and others. May the Lord bless and prosper them and return them in safety. He left us without anything from which to make bread, it not being in his power to get it. Not long after Amasa had gone, Jane James, the colored woman, let me zave two pounds of flour, it being half of what she had. 1 132 Like many other immigrants, the James family had entered initially into farmingo 15 In 1856, their property holdings, located in the First Ward in the southeast corner of Great Salt Lake City, included a land claim and improvements, a timepiece, and a few other personal possessions. This small stake probably represented a hand- to-mouth existence, but it seems typical of the families living in . war d . 16 t h is In the meantime, the family grew rapidly. Between 1848 and 1860, at least six children were born to the Jameses; five of them survived to adulthood. 17 Despite steadily increasing family respon- sibilities, the household slowly prospered. By 1860, the family had accumulated an ox, a cow, three hogs, and a cart in addition to their land claim, dwelling, household furnishings, and other improvements. 18 The following year their eldest son Sylvester, armed with a rifle and ten rounds of ammunition, was listed as a member of the Nauvoo Legion. 19 By 1865, the Jameses had added further to their possessions, now valued at $1,100. They had raised a small flock of sheep on a temporary basis during the early 1860s. Three horses had taken the place of an ox as the family's work animal, and a new vehicle seems to have replaced their aging cart. These assets did not represent wealth, but they do suggest prosperity for a rural family. Only four other households in the First Ward held more property than the Jameses, 20 while thirty-one held less. This prosperity, however, concealed marital difficulties. The 133 consequences of these difficulties are apparent, though the causes are not. In late 1869 or early 1870, Isaac James left the household and sold most of the family's realty, consisting of a one-and-aquarter acre lot and improvements, to his wife for $500. 21 The sale of the property for a cash consideration indicates that Isaac intended his departure to be permanent and that he and his wife had not separated on friendly terms. He does not seem to have maintained any relations with the family after his departure. Within four years, Mrs. James had remarried but this second marriage lasted less than two years, and following its dissolution she reverted to the use of her former married name. 22 In 1887, when the estate of one of their sons was being settled, she listed Isaac's whereabouts as "unknown." 23 He did reappear in Portland, Oregon and later returned to Salt Lake City, probably in 1890, where he resided until his death in November, 1891. 24 There can be no doubt that the breakup of the marriage caused Mrs. James embarrassment and concern; it was a part of her past that she failed to mention in her "Life Sketch." As a conscientious Mormon, marriage to her was a religious as well as secular relationship which when solemnized by the Church would extend past death and through eternity. It was with this consideration in mind that she wrote Apostle Joseph F. Smith in early 1890 and requested permission to be "sealed" to another man whom she felt was more worthy to spend eternal life with. 25 She and Isaac may have become reconciled, 134 however, following his return to Salt Lake City and his readmission to the Church. Not only was his funeral held at her home, but in later life she requested the ordinance of adoption for both of them, indicating that she wished them to be members of the same family in the afterlife. 26 In 1869-70, however, Mrs. James' most pressing concern was the care of the family, for she had assumed responsibility for the younger children still living in the household. 27 She soon moved to the Eighth Ward and exchanged her First Ward property for a portion of a lot lying on the east side of Fifth East Street between Fifth and Sixth South Streets. 28 Here she established the residence in which she lived for the remainder of her life, a two-story frame house set back from the street and enclosed by a white picket fence. 29 The farm animals and vehicles that had played a vital role in the family's domestic economy during the 1860s never again were listed as part of the household's assets following Isaac James' departure. 30 The family economy was now dependent on a continuing cash income, although Mrs. James did raise produce in a small family ' 31 garden and manufactured some household items such as soap. The prosperity that had characterized her household in the 1860s seems absent during the remainder of the century. Her limited assets placed her among the poorer residents of the Eighth Ward. For a few years a very small portion of her income was derived from the lease of a five-acre plot on the East Bench, which she had inherited 135 in 1872 following the death of an unmarried son, important source of income was her own labor. 33 but a much more In addition to man- aging the household, which at times included several young grand. d omestic . wor k . 34 c h i. ld ren, s h e engaged in Her youngest son, Jessie, lived at home most of his life and no doubt assisted the family through his earnings as a laborer and porter. 35 Despite the squeeze of finances, the household bustled with the activity of children and grandchildren and the arrival and departure of older relatives. Mrs. James remained a steadfast member of the Mormon Church throughout her life. She was particularly active in the Women's Relief Society, a Church auxiliary which in the Eighth Wa.rd engaged in much charitable work. Joining the local branch on November 1, 36 h . . 1870 , soon a f ter moving into t h e war d , s e not on 1 y contr1.b ute d ' regularly to its work but also supported its numerous special drives. She donated towards the construction of the St. George, Logan, and Manti Temples. Among other Church causes towards which she contrib- uted were the "Lamanite" (Indian) Mission, an Old Folks' Excursion at Liberty Park, a fair in behalf of the Deseret Hospital, and a People's Party banner during the bitterly contested municipal campaign of 1890. In recognition of her service and limited income, the local branch of the Relief Society regularly designated her family as recipients of a Christmas basket containing packages of meat, dried fruits, sugar, and other staples. 37 The quality of her faith and 136 her reputation as a pioneer extended beyond the boundaries of her local ward. In late life, both she and her brother, Isaac L. Man- ning, enjoyed reserved seats near the front and center of the Salt Lake Tabernacle for Sunday services. 38 Although culturally a member of the Mormon community and devotedly attached to the Mormon faith, Mn{. James remained racially conscious. That she expressed this racial consciousness indirectly rather than directly may have reflected her position in a virtually all-white community. She unabashedly revered Joseph Smith, and late in life referred to him as "the finest man I ever saw on earth." Her awe seems to have been based not only on his role as prophet of the faith and such personal characteristics as his generosity and democratic manner, which she mentioned prominently in a reminiscence, .but also on his stand on slavery. She noted significantly, "Things caine to pass what he prophesied about the colored race being freed. Things that he said has come to pass. knew of it." I did not hear that, but I 39 Despite earlier statements condoning slavery while the Mormons were residents of Missouri, Joseph Smith ran for President in 1844 on a platform that included a call for the abolition of slavery through a policy of compensated emancipation. ringing endorsement of freedom: The plank concluded with a "Break off the shackles from the poor black man, and hire him to labor like other human beings, for 'an hour of virtuous liberty on earth is worth a whole eternity of 137 bondage."' His presidential campaign coincided with the period during which Mrs. James was resident in his household, and to a racially-conscious Black Mormon, his stand on slavery may have been vita1. 40 The racial practices of her Church were a test of Mrs. James' faith, as her letters to the presiding authorities attest. A sense of millennial expectation, combined with anxiety for her future salvation lay behind her repeated requests for Temple ordinances. To a conscientious Black Mormon such as she, one who believed that the contemporary era was the "fullness of times" and that she was one of the saints of the latter days, the hope that revelation on some future occasion would lead to a modification of the Church's racial practices did not meet her spiritual needs. 41 She was also aware qf apparent inconsistencies in past practices, though sufficiently circumspect not to mention this directly. One should take particular notice of her 1890· request to be sealed to a Black man whose ordination into the priesthood some forty years before was not a matter of public knowledge. 42 Such apparent inconsistencies in Mormon racial practices bred hope among those who were alert to them, and may help to explain Mrs. James' continuing correspondence with the Church authorities on these subjects. 43 In a church often noted for its authoritarian character and distrust of dissenters, she undoubtedly recognized the futility of adopting a policy of protest in her dealings with Church leaders. 138 She relied instead on patience and persistence. While submitting her requests with proper respect to the presiding authorities, she continued to maintain her viewpoint. Her reaction to the First Presidency's decision to permit her to be sealed into Joseph Smith's household is particularly significant in this regard. Although adopted into the household as a servant, she continued to press her ' 44 original entreaty to be adopted into it as a child. Hers may have been a policy characterized by subtle indirection, but it does not seem to have been one of "accommodationism," which could lead to a loss of personal dignity. Moreover, she seems to have maintained cordial relations with the Church leadership, for President Joseph F. Smith was one of several Church officials who spoke at her funeral. 45 Yet another test of her faith concerned the deaths in her family. Mrs. James outlived all but two of her children, Sylvester and Ellen. Of her severt children who reached maturity, five died before the age of forty, and three of these died before age thirty. Two daughters, Mary Ann and Miriam, died in childbirth, the first in 1871 at the age of twenty-two, and the second in 1874 at age twenty-four. eight. 46 A third daughter, Vilate, died in 1897 at age thirty- As a young woman, Vilate had moved to California where she married a Methodist minister and later served for six years as a . . . L.b . 47 missionary in i eria. in 1872 of "consumption." thirty-seven. 48 One son, Silas, died at age twenty-five Another son, Jessie, died in 1894 at age Mortality statistics were equally as grim among her 139 grandchildren. Of fourteen who can be located through local records, six died before reaching the age of four. 49 Age broµght the further trials of increasing infirmity and enroaching poverty. Her eyesight grew dimmer to a point where she was no longer able to read, and late in life her ability to walk . ·1 ar 1 y impaire . . d . 50 was s1m1 With the death of her son Jessie, who resided at home, one source of outside income ended. In 1893, her brother Isaac L. :Manning who had joined her in the move to Nauvoo but not to Utah came to Salt Lake City following the death of his wife and daughter. He rejoined the Church and resided at Mrs. 51 James' home. Although turning eighty in 1895, he worked as a laborer, plasterer, and cleaner of carpets. 52 Mrs. James also con- tinued to work full-time until a few years before her death. 53 Between 1903 and 1908, their financial plight grew even more severe, requiring outside aid. Her daughter Ellen, remarried and living in Nevada, contributed small sums of money at various times, and her son Sylvester furnished fruit and vegetables from the garden of his Mill Creek residence. 54 Small contributions of cash and mer- chandise also arrived from the Eighth Ward Relief Society at various . 1 s. 55 interva Burdened by the infirmities of age and weakened by a severe fall, she died April 16, 1908. 56 Jane Elizabeth James left few sources for a study of her life, but those that are extant shed light on several features of her character. One of her most noticeable traits was a sense of gener- 140 osity that frequently appeared in her rel.ations with her children. In 1.872, for instance, she gave her married daughter Miriam a piece of her homesite for the establislunent of a permanent residence. Miriam died in 1874, and in later years her husband, who was raising the children, lost the home through nonpayment of taxes. Mrs .. James then transferred, at no apparent cost, yet another piece of her homesite to the three grandchildren. 57 She exhibited similar gener- osity towards her daughter Ellen, though it may have been misplaced in this instance. In 1886, under entreaties for financial assistance from Ellen, Mrs. James transferred the whole of her Eighth Ward homesite to her daughter who was apparently troubled by serious personal problems. Ellen mortgaged the property as security for a loan and soon moved to Los Angeles. Unable to repay the loan, she transferred the homesite back to her mother, who was saddled with the difficult task of repaying the mortgage to save her home. 58 These incidents suggest that a strong sense of family ties underlay her generosity toward her children, despite the breakup of her own marriage. Another visible aspect of her character was the poise and dignity that she maintained despite personal and financial adversity. These characteristics are particularly apparent in her relations with the Church leadership, but in addition, they may be revealed in a minor way through the pride she took in her appearance. 59 Underlying her dignity was a reservoir of endurance that surfaced in religious terms as her personal philosophy in times of adversity. In her account of those periods of extreme deprivation that the family suffered in early-day Utah, she stated, "Oh how I suffered of cold and hunger and keenest of all was to hear my little ones crying for bread, and I had none to give them; but in all the Lord was with us and gave us grace and faith to stand it all. 1160 Her life was not one which brought financial reward or historical recognition. Today, sixty-five years following her death, not even a stone marks the family resting place in the Salt Lake City Cemetery. Her achievements were personal. Within a larger society blighted by a cresting_ wave of racial bigotry, and within a church and community whose racial practices caused her concern, she managed the difficult task of maintaining her racial and religious identification as both a Black and a Mormon without sacrificing a sense of personal dignity. Financial distress and unsuccessful marriages were aspects of her life, but she did not permit them to overcome a strong sense of family unity and a natural generosity. Although these personal achievements have dimmed with the passage of time, they gained recognition from her contemporaries. The Deseret News furnished the following statement in its report of her funeral services: Mrs. Jane Manning James, the aged colored woman who died last week, was buried yesterday, the funeral services being held at the Eighth Ward meetinghouse, commencing at 2 o'clock. The house was crowded, many in the congregation being of her own race. Flowers in profusion were contributed by friends who had learned to respect the deceased for her undaunted faith and goodness of heart. 142 The recent discovery of her "Life Sketch" which was read at her funeral may help to recapture a sense of her personal achievements. This account of the James family may serve to of fer a few generalizations that, though based on limited research, can suggest areas in which further study of Utah's Black corrununity would be useful. A sense of cohesion is perhaps the most noticeable feature of Utah's early-day Black population which numbered merely 118, 51 of whom resided in Salt Lake County. 61 Salt Lake County's Black residents consisted, at that time, of nine families living in single households, all headed by males except in the cases of Mrs. James' family, plus two single men involved in logging operations near the mines of Little Cottonwood Canyon, and two women employed as domestics in white families. Although but a tiny fraction of the total population and scattered in various parts of the county, six of these nine families lived in pairs, side by side with another Black family. 62 This indi- cation of a sense of racial identification in the establishment of residence is strengthened by a sampling of property transactions. In the middle 1870s, for instance, three other Black families had settled on the same section of the Eighth Ward block where Mrs. James lived. One family was that of her son-in-law, but the others were unrelated. 63 A similar tendency can be noted. in Union, a rural ward located just south of Salt Lake City. By 1880, at least four Black families had settled in Union, together with several single 1.43 men who resided with them as boarders. All of their lands whose location can be plotted with some precision lay within the same forty-acre quarter section4 64 These cases suggest that a sense of cohesion, probably produced by a recognition of racial differences, led Blacks to transfer property among one another and settle in pairs or groups in early-day Utah. In evaluating this sense of cohesion, it should be noted that inter-marriage within the Black population seems to have produced alliances among certain families. 65 The marriage of Mrs. James' eldest son Sylvester to Mary Ann Perkins was complemented by Mrs. James' brief marriage to Frank Perkins, Mary Ann's father. Another link between these families was forged in 1893 when Sylvester's son William Henry gave his uncle Sylvester Perkins a fouracre plot of land in Mill Creek. This land Perkins farmed in con- junction with nearby property owned by his brother-in-law. 66 The James and Leggroan families formed similar alliances. When Ned Leggroan arrived in Salt Lake City in 1869-70, his initial residence was near the home of Sylvester James. 67 In 1871, he purchased property in the Eighth Ward and resided next door to Mrs. James. The Leggroan family later moved, first to South Cottonwood and later to Idaho, but some of the children returned to Salt Lake City and two of Ned's sons married two of Sylvester's daughters. These descendants settled in Mill Creek, the same locale in which Sylvester James' residence was then located. 68 144 The tangled relationships between these families, however complicated, suggest that group. settlement among Blacks initially produced family alliances and intermarriage~ Group settlement and family alliances later reinforced one another, thus developing further a sense of cohesion in the Black population. Blacks formed but a minute fraction of Utah's population throughout the late nineteenth century, numbering but 672 in 1900. The educational backgrounds of many if not most of the earliest settlers verged on illiteracy, and employment in professional or white collar jobs was absent as late as 18700 It is not surprising, therefore, that the first Black institutions seem to have been established only in the period following 1890. .An association of Black Republicans was meeting in Salt Lake City in 1892, and a Black weekly newspaper was published between 1896 and 1899. At least two Black Protestant congregations made their appearance in this decade. 69 Nonetheless, a sense of racial cohesion seems iden- tifiable in the Black population as early as 1870, just five years following the abolition of slavery and little more than twenty years after the arrival of the first Black settlers in the Salt Lake Valley. Though scholars may disagree in their definitions of community, group cohesion combined with a sense of distinctiveness is an essential component. The historian who pursues the study of the origins of Utah's Black community probably will find that his search leads him into the pioneer era of the Territory's past. 145 A related subject that requires investigation is the amount of social mobility experienced by these early Black settlers and their descendants. It does not appear that any of Mrs. James' sons rose above the station of their father, yet two of the three did obtain realty. 70 of early settlers. Such access to property seems typical of a number The three neighboring Black families to the James household in the 1870s owned the land on which their homes stood. Similarly, of four rural families residing in Union in 1880, three owned twenty-five or more acres of land. 71 Though these holdings were of modest size and value, the situation in Utah seems to contrast favorably with that prevailing in the South at the same time where the rural freed man was trapped economically by a system of tenancy and sharecropping. However, if such access to property afforded the Utah Black and his descendants social and economic advancement, it remains to be determined. Mrs. James' own life indicates that the origins of Utah's Black community are intertwined with the development of the Latterday Saint Church. Until the arrival of the railroad in 1869, the great majority of Utah's Black settlers seem to have immigrated to the area as members of the Church or as slaves within Mormon households where they were exposed to the religion. What portion of their descendants remained members of the Church is unclear, but limited evidence suggests that it was a minority. 72 Only one of Mrs. James' children is known to have belonged t·o the Church at 146 the time of his death .. 73 Although the rate of attrition of Church membership of Utah Blacks remains to be determined and explained, it can be suggested that the development of a Black community in late nineteenth century Utah may have affected it. Major Protestant denominations such as the Methodists and Baptists had pursued a policy of racial separation to its outer limit during the century, and the result was the establishment of Black congregations, churches, and conventions. These Black institutions often became focal points of the Black community, and by the turn of the twentieth century two of them-the African Methodist Episcopal Church and the Calvary Baptist Church--had been established in Salt Lake City. The Mormon Church, on the other hand, maintained an integrated structure; Blacks as well as whites were members of geographically defined wards. But its denial of the priesthood to Black members precluded the development of leadership and institutions that could serve its Black constituency. As Black institutions and racial consciousness gained expression in Utah, a policy of separatism may have ironically assisted Protestant denominations in their appeal to the local Black community. 74 These suggestions, however valid for Utah's earliest Black settlers, should not be regarded as equally applicable to later Black immigrants. Between 1870 and 1890, Utah's Black population almost quintupled and grew from 0.1 to 0.3 percent of the total 147 population.' Although part of this increase resulted from the stationing of Bla.ck troops--"buffalo soldiers," as they were known-in the Territory, only substantial immigration can explain such a massive jump in numbers. Most of the immigrants were men, and by 1890 two-thirds of Utah's Black population was male. This sexual imbalance which continued through the early twentieth century may have led to significant changes in family and social structure wi.thin the community. These Blacks, one can safely assume, were overwhelmingly non-Mormon and most of them~ aside from those serving 'in the army, seem to have settled in those counties dominated by major urban centers. 75 Whether this element found property as accessible as did earlier Black residents, whether their backgrounds, educational levels and occupational skills were similar to those of earlier Black settlers, and whether the two groups associated and intermarried across religious and cultural lines remain intriguing subjects for further study by those interested in the origins of Utah's Black community. Documents Relating to Jane E. James. Document 1: 76 Jane E. James to President John Taylor, December 27, 1884. (John Taylor Papers, CHD). 148 Salt L City Dec 27,1884 Pres John Taylor Dear Brother I cauled at your house last thursday to have conversation with you concerning my future salvation [.] I did not explain my feelings or wishes to you [.] I realize my race & color & cant expect my Endowments77 as othe.rs who are white I . ] My race was handed down through the flood & God promised Abraham that in his seed all the nations of the earth should be blest & as this is the fullness of all dispensations is there no blessing for me [.] 78 I with my Fathers family came from Connecticut 42 years the 14th of last Oct[.] I am the only one of my Fathers family that kept the faith[.] you know my history & according to the best of my ability I have lived to all the requairments of the Gospel[.] when we reached Nauvoo we were 9 in the family & had traveled 9 hundred miles on foot[.] Bro Joseph Smith took us in & we staid with him until a few day[s] of his death[.] Sister Emma came to me & asked me how I would like to be adopted to them as a Child[.] I did not comprehend her & she came again[.] I was so green I did not give her a decided answer & Joseph died & [I] remain as I am[.] if I could be adopted to him as a child my Soul would be satisfied[.]79 I had been in the Church one year when we left the East that was 42 years the 14th of last Oct[.] Br Taylor I hope you will pardon me for intruding on your [time?] so much & hope & prey you will be able to lay rny case before Br Cannon & Br Jos F Smith8 0 & God will in mercy grant my reques[t] in being adopted to Br Joseph as a Child[.] I remain yor Sister in the Gospel of Christ Jane E James 81 Document 2: Angus M. Cannon President of Salt Lake Stake, to Jane E. James, June 16, 1888 (Angus M. Cannon Letterpress Copybooks, CHD)'. Salt Lake City June 16, 1888 Mrs. Jane James, I enclose you your recommend properly signed, - which will entitle you to enter the Temple to be babtized and confirmed for your dead kindred. 149 You must be content with this privelege, awaiting further instructions from the Lord to his servants. I am your servant and brother in the Gospel. Angus M. Cannon Document 3: Jane E. James to Apostle Joseph F. Smith, February 7, 1890 (Joseph F. Smith Papers, CHD). Salt Lake City February 7, 1890 Dear Brother -Please excuse me taking the Liberty of Writing to you - but be a Brother - I am anxious for My Welfare for the future - and has i hope to be one Bye and Bye, bearing the same name as yourself I was requested to write to you - Hoping you will please show kindness to me - by answering my questions - Thereby satisfying my mind -First Has Brother James has Left me 21 years - and a Coloured Brother, Brother Lewis wished me to Be Sealed to Him, He has been dead 35 or 36 years - Can i be sealed to him - parley P. Pratt ordained Him an Elder. When or [how?] can i ever be sealed to Him. __ 8 2 Second, - Can i obtain Endowments for my Dead[.] Also, I had the privilige of being babtised for My Dead, in October Last. Third, Can i also be adopted in Brother Joseph Smiths the prophet['s] family, I think you are somewhat Acquainted with me - I Lived in the prophets family With Emma and others, about a year - and Emma Said Joseph told her to tell me - I could be adopted In their family,~she ask me if i should Like to. I Did not understand the Law of adoption then but Understanding i t now. Can that be Accomplished and When -I have heard you attend to the prophets Business in those matters And so have Written to you for information Hoping soon to hear from you in these matters -I remain Your Sister In the Gospel Jane E James, Elizabeth I am Couloured Jane E James 529 - 2 East S L C 150 Document 4: Zina Do H. Young to Apostle Joseph F. Smith, January 15, 1894 (Zina D.R. Young Papers, CHD). S L. City Jan 15th 1894 Jane E James, says, Si.ster Emma Smith asked her if she would like to be adopted into .Joseph Smiths family as a child, & not understanding her meaning said no Jane was Born Wilton Fairfield, Co. Conn Jane also asked me to ask if Isaac James & her Brother could also be adopted Zina D. H. Young Document 5: Entry of October 16, 1894, Journals of Wilford Woodruff, President, Latter-day Saint Church (CHD). We had Meeting with several individuals among the rest Black Jane wanted to know if I would not let her have her Endowments in the Temple[,] this I could not do as it was against the Law of God As Cain killed Abel All the seed of Cain would have to wait--Yor redemption untill all the seed that Abel would have had that may come through other m~n can be redeemed. 8 4 Document 6: Minutes of a Meeting of the Council of the Twelve Apostles, August 22, 1895 (as given· in "Excerpts from the Weekly Council Meetings of the Quorum of Twelve Apostles, Dealing with I the Rights of Negroes in the Church, 1849-1940," George Albert Smith Papers, UU). President Woodruff informed the Council that Sister Jane James, a negress of long standing in the Church, had asked him for permission to receive her endowments, and that he and his counselors had told her that they could see no way by which they could accede to her wishes; 151 Document 7: Minutes of a Meeting of the Council of the Twelve Apostles, January 2, 1902 (as given in ibid.) The wife of Isaac James (known as Aunt Jane) asked to receive her own endowments and to be sealed; but President Woodruff, Cannon, and Smith decided that this could.not be done, but decided that she might be adopted into the family of Joseph Smith as a servant, which was done, a special ceremony having been prepared for the purpose. But Aunt Jane was not satisfied with this, and as a mark of her dissatisfaction she applied again after this for sealing blessings, but of course in vain. Document 8: Jane E. James to President Joseph F. Smith, August 31, 1903 (Joseph F. Smith Papers, CHD). Mrs. Jane Elizabeth James 529 S. 2nd East St Salt Lake City Aug 31st 1903 President Joseph F Smith Dear Brother I take this oppertunity of writing to ask you if I can get my endowments and also finish the work I have begun for My dead. and Dear Brother I would like to see and talk with you about it, will you please write to me and tell me how soon, when and where I shall come and I will be there by doing so you will be conferring a great favour[.] Your sister in the Gospel Jane E James85 I -have enclosed a stamped Envelope for reply [.] Document 9: Life Sketch of Jane Elizabeth Manning James (Wilford Woodruff Papers, CHD). Biography of Jane E. Manning James written from her own verbal statement and by her request, she also wishes it read at her funeral by EJD Roundy 86 written in the year 1893 When a child only six years old I left my home and went to live with a family of white people their names were Mr. and Mrs. Joseph 152 Fitch, they were aged people and quite wealthy, 1 was raised by their daughter, when a.bout fourteen years old 1 joined the Presbyterian Church, yet I did not feel satisfied it seemed to me there was something more that I was looking for. I had belonged to the Church about eighteen months when an Elder of the church of Jesus Christ of Latterday Saints was travelling through our country preached there. The pastor of the Presbyterian Church forbid me going to hear them as he had heard I had expressed a desire to hear them, but nevertheless I went on a Sunday and was fully convinced that it was the true Gospel he presented and I must embrace it I.] The following Sunday I was baptized and confirmed a member of the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints. About three weeks after while kneeling at prayer the Gift of Tongues came upon me, and frightened the whole family who were in the next room. One year after I was baptized, I started for Nauvoo with my Mother 8 7 Eliza Manning my brothers Isaac, Lewis 88 and Peter, my Sisters Sarah Stebbings, and Angeline Manning, my brother in Law Anthony Stebbings, Lucinda Manning a sisterinlaw and myself fall of 1840.89 We started from Wilton Conn, and travelled by Canal to Buffalo N.Y. We were to go to Columbus Ohio before our fares were to be collected, but they insisted on having the money at Buffalo and would not take us farther.90 So we left the boat, and started on foot to travel a distance of over eight hundred miles. We walked until our shoes were worn out, and our feet became sore and cracked open and bled until you could see the whole print of our feet with blood on the ground. We stopped and united in prayer to the Lord, we asked God the Eternal Father to heal our feet and our prayers were answered and our feet were healed forthwith. When we arrived at Peoria Illinois the authorities threatened to put us in jail to get our free papers we di.dnt know at first what he meant for we had never been slaves, but he concluded to let us go, so we travelled on until we came to a river and as there was no bridge we walked right into the stream, when we got to the middle the water was up to our necks but we got safely across, and then it became so dark we could hardly see our hands before us, but we could see a light in the distance, so we went toward it and found it.was an old Log Cabin here we spent the night; next day we walked for a considerable distance, and staid that night in a forest, out in the open air. The frost fell on us so heavy that it was like a light fall of snow. we rose early and started on our way walking through that frost with our bare feet, until the sun rose and melted it away. But we went on our way rejoicing singing hymns and thanking God for his infinite goodness and mercy to us, in blessing us as he had, protecting us from all harm, answering our prayers and healing our feet. In course of time we arrived at La harpe Ill, about thirty miles from Nauvoo [.] At La harpe we came to a place where there was a very sick child, we administered to it, and the child was healed[.] I found after9 1 the elders had before this given i t up as they did not think it could live. 153 We have now arrived to our d.estined haven of rest, the beautiful Nauvoo1 here we went through all kinds of hardship, trial and rebuff, but we at last got to brother Orson Spencer's, he directed us to the Prophet Joseph Smith's mansion, when we found it, Sister Emma was standing in the door, and she kindly said come in, come in! Brother Joseph said to some white Sisters that was present, Sisters I want you to occupy this room this evening with some brothers and sist~rs that have just arrived, Brother Joseph placed the chairs around the room then he went and brought Sister Emma and Dr Bernhisel 92 and introduced them to us, brother Joseph took a chair and sat down by me, arid said, you have been the head of this little band havent you? I answered yes sir! he then said God bless you! Now I would like you to relate your experience in your travels, 1 related to them all that I have above stated, and a great deal more minutely, as many incidents has passed from my memory since then. Brother Joseph slapped Dr. Berhisel on the knee and said, What do you think of that Dr, ,isn't that faith, the Dr said, Well I rather think it is, if it had have been me I fear I should have backed out and returned to my home! he then said God bless you, you are among friends, now and you will be protected. They sat and talked to us a while, gave us words of encouragement and good counsel. We all stayed there one week, by that time all but myself had secured homes, Brother Josep~ came in every morning to say good morning and how we were. During our trip I had lost all my clothes, they were all gone, my trunks were sent by Canal to the car of Charles Wesley Wandel, one large trunk full of clothes of all descriptions mostly new. On the morning that my folks all left to go to work, I looked at myself, clothed in the o?lY two pieces I posessed, I sat down and wept, Brother Joseph came into the room as usual and said good morning, Why not crying, yes sir the folks have all gone and got themselves homes, and I have got none. He said yes you have, you have a home right here if you want it, you musn't cry, we dry up all tears here. I said I have lost my trunk and all my clothes, he asked how I had lost them? I told them I put them in care of Charles Wesley Wandle and paid him for them and he has lost them. Brother Joseph said don't cry you shall have your trunk and clothes again.93 Brother Joseph went out and -brought Sister Emma in and said Sister Emma here is a girl that says she has no home, havent you a home for her? Why yes if she wants one, he said she does and then he left us. Sister Emma said what can you do? I said I can Wash, Iron, Cook, and do housework! Well she said when you are rested you may do the washing, if you would just as soon do that, I said I am not tired, well she said you may commence your work in the morning. The next morning she brought the clothes down in the basement to wash[.] Among the clothes I found brother Josephs Robes. I looked 154 at them and wondered, l had never seen any before, and I pondered over th.em and thought about them so earnestly th.at the spirit made manifest to me that they pertained to th.e new name that is given the saints that the world knows not off.. I didnt know when I washed them or when I put them out to dry. Brother Josephs four wives Emily Partridge Eliza Partridge, Maria and Sarah Lawrence and myself, were sitting discussing Mormonism and Sarah said what would you think if a man had more wives than one? I said that is all right! Maria said well we are all four Brother Josephs wives! I jumped up and clapped my hands and said that's good, Sarah said she is all right, just listen she believes it all now. I had to pass through Mother Smiths.room to get to mine, she would often stop me and talk to me, she told me all Brother .Josephs troubles, and what he had suffered in publishing the Book of Mormon. One morning I met Brother Joseph coming out of his mothers room he said good morning .and shook hands with me. I went in to his mothers room she said good morning bring me that bundle from my bureau and sit down here [. ] I did as she to.Id me, she placed the bundle from my hands and said, handle this and then put [it] in the top drawer of my bureau and lock it up, after I had done it she said sit down. Do you remember that I told you about the Urim and Thumim when I told you about the book of Mormon? I answered yes man, she then told me I had just handled it, you are not permitted to see it, but you have been permitted to handle it. You will live long after I am dead and gone and you can tell the Latter-day Saints, that you was permitted to handle the Urim and Thumim.94 Sister Emma asked me one day if I would like to be adopted to them as their child? I did not answer her, she said I will wait awhile and let you consider it; she waited two weeks before she asked me again, when she did I told her no mam! because I did not understand or know what it meant, they were always good and kind to me but I did not know my own mind I did not comprehend. Soon after they broke up the mansion and I went to my mother, there was not much work because of the persecutions, and I saw Brother Joseph and asked him if I should go to Burlington and take my sister Angeline with me? He said yes go and be good girls, and remember your profession of faith in the Everlasting gospel, and the Lord will bless you. We went and stayed three weeks then returned to Nauvoo. During this time Joseph and Hyrum were killed. I shall never forget that time of agony and sorrow, I went to live in the family of Brother Brigham Young, I stayed there until he was ready to emigrate to this valley. While I was at Bro, Brighams I married Isaac James, when Bro, Brigham left Nauvoo I went to live at Bro, Calhoons.95 In the spring of 1846 I left Nauvoo to come to this great and glorious Valley. We travelled as far as winter quarters 155 there we stayed until spring, At Keg Creek96 my son Silas was born. In the spring of 1847 we started again on our way to this valley[.] We arrived here on the 22nd day of September 1847 without any serious mishaps, the Lords blessing was with us and protected us all the way, the only thing that did occur worth relating was when our cattle stampeded, some of them we never did find. May 1848, my daughter Mary Ann was born, all of my children but two were born here in this valley, their names are Silas, Silvester, Mary Ann, Miriam, Ellen Madara, Jessie, Jerry, Boln,97 Isaac, Vilate, all of them are with their heavenly father except two Sylvester and Ellen Madara. My children were all raised to men and women and all had families except two. My husband Isaac James worked for Brother Brigham,98 and we got along splendid accumulating Horses, cows, oxen, sheep, and chickens in abundance. I spun all the cloth for my family clothing for a year or two, and we were in a prosperous condition, until the grasshoppers and crickets came along carrying destruction wherever they went, laying our crops to the ground, striping the trees of all their leaves and fruit, bringing poverty and desolation throughout this beautiful valley. It was not then as it is now, there were no trains running bringing fruits and vegetables from California or any other place. All our importing and exporting was done by the slow process of ox teams. Oh how I suffered of cold and hunger and the keenest of all was to hear my little ones crying for bread, and I had none to give them; but in all the Lord was with us and gave us grace and faith to stand it all. 1 have seen Bro, Brigham, Bra's Taylor Woodruff and Snow, Rule this great work and pass on to their rewards and now Brother Joseph F. Smith[.] I hope the Lord will spare him if tis his holy will for many many years, to guide the Gospel ship to a harbor of safety, and I know they will i f the people will only listen and obey the teachings of these good great and holy men. I have lived right. here in Salt Lake City for fifty two years, and I have had the privelege of going into the Temple and being baptized for some of my dead [.] I am now ~ger eighty years old (Her brother Isaac said she was born in 1813s) and I am nearly blind which is a great trial to me, it is the greatest trial I have ever been called upon to bear, but I hope my eysight will be spared to me poor as it is that I may be able to go to meeting, and to the temple to do more work for my dead [.] I am a widow, my husband Isaac James died in November 1891. I have seen my husband and all my children but two, Laid away in the silent tomb. But the Lord protects me, and takes good care of me, in my helpless condition, and I want to say right here, that my faith in the Gospel of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints, is as strong today, nay, it is if possible stronger than it was the day I was first baptized [.] I pay my tithes and offerings, keep the word of wisdom, I 156 go to bed early and rise early, I t~y in my feeble way to set a good example to all; I have had eighteen grand children eight of them are living, also seven great grand children[.1 I live in my little home with my brother (Isaac who is good to me)_OO we are the last two of my mothers family (I want him to stay there after me).101 This is just a concise (but true) 1 0 2 sketch of my life and experience [. ] Yours in truth Jane Elizabeth James 1 Jame Elizabeth James called on me to write this. It was her own statement and she declared it was true. The only error, or you may call it evasion, was her reticence pertaining to one of her children. She stated in her brothers presence that all but two were born in the valley, one Silas was born on their way to the valley but the other was born before she was baptized or soon after. Patriarch John Smith read or heard her history read, he said that when she came to Nauvoo she had a boy five or six years old at any rate he said that he was a good chunk of a boy, and told me to find out about it; I could not get any thing out of Jane but her brother Isaac came to my house one day and he said that the boy was Sylvester, that he was born in Conn, at her mothers, that he was the child of a white man a preacher, but he could not -tell if he was the child of the Presbyterian or a Methodist preacher, that Jane was nearly eighteen or quite that old when the child was born, and her mother kept the child and Jane went back to the Fitch family, and then she heard the Gospel and was baptized, and soon after she got her mother and the whole family to be baptized. Isaac said in a year or two after they all started for Nauvoo as Jane has stated in her sketch[.] Elizabeth J.D. Roundy FOOTNOTES 1. Research for this study has benefited from the cooperation of private citizens and public officials who have taken the time to furnish access to local records and also aid in using them. Among others, the following persons were particularly helpful:. George Frodsham, deputy recorder for Salt Lal<.e County, who provided guidance in the use of early-day property records; Elaine Me. Hofeling, who located a large number of nineteenth century assessment rolls for Salt Lake City; Herman J. Hogensen, Salt Lake City Recorder, and Mildred V. Higham, his deputy,who granted access to these rolls; and Weldon Nichols, Office Supervisor at the Salt Lake City Cemetery, and Marci Jackman, his assistant, who furnished aid in the use of burial and death records held by their institution. Research for this study was aided by a grant from the Historical Department of the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints. For conciseness, the following abbreviations have been used both in the text and footnotes in designating research institutions whose ·records have been used for this study: CHD=Historical Department, Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints; GS=Genealogical Society, Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints; USA;Utah State Archives; USHS-Utah State Historical Society; and UU=Western Americana. Section, Marriott Library, University of Utah. 2. The earliest record furnishing information on the nativity of Jane E. James is a patriarchal blessing issued in 1844, which states she was born May 11, 1818, the daughter of Isaac and Eliza Manning. Two of her sisters, one older and one younger than she, received patriarchal blessings at this time also, and their parents' names are listed as Isaac and Eliza Manninge [Entries for "Jane Manning," "Angeline Manning," and "Sarah Stebbins," Early Church Information File, GS. Later records, which offer variants of this information on nativity, include the following: Journal History, HD, June 21, 1847; Eighth Ward, Salt Lake Stake, Record of Members, Early - 1905, Lib. No. 7767, pp. 24 and 37, microfilm copy; and "Jane Elizabeth Manning James," Patriarchal Blessing File, CHD.] 3. In her ''Life Sketch," published with this article, Mrs. James refers to four brothers and sisters as members of the party that made the trek from Connecticut to Nauvoo. The 1820 federal census for Wilton lists the household of Isaac Manning as containing five members, a man and a woman between the ages of 26 and 44 and three youngsters--one boy and two girls--under 13. The 1830 census for Wilton lists Phillis Manning as the head of a free black household containing five members, a woman between the ages of 36 and 55, a 158 young woman between 10 and 24, and three youngsters--two boys and a girl--under 10. Given the relative scarcity of blacks in southwestern Connecticut, as well as Mrs. James' reference to her, mother as "Phillis" in her "Life Sketch," it is likely that the household listed in the 1820 census under Isaac Hanning is basically the same household listed in the 1830 census under Phillis Manning. A thorough search of the 1840 census for Fairfield County has located no black household under the name of Manning that corresponds to the Manning households found in the 1820 and 1830 censuses. The 1820, 1830, and 1840 censuses list a household headed by Joseph P. Fitch, residing in Wilton, but the household does not contain a young black girl who might be identified as Jane Elizabeth Manning. [1820 Federal Census, Connecticut, Fairfield County, pp. 294 and 297; 1830 Federal Census, Connecticut, Fairfield County, pp. 214 and 233; and 1840 Federal Census, Connecticut, Fairfield County, p. 338, microfilm copies, GS.] 4. Estate of Silas F. James, deed., No. 1204, rhird District Court for Salt Lake County, Probate Division, USA; "Notice," attached to Third Amended Complaint, sworn Apr. 6, 1909, in the case of Sylvester James v. Ellen M. McLean, No. 10219, Third District Court for Salt La~e County, Civil Division, USA; and "A Reminiscence of Joseph Smith," Dialogue, 5 (Summer 1970): p. 128. · 5. Times and Seasons, 2, pp. 544-45, and 3, pp. 763-65. 6. Clarance Merrill, "History of Albert Merrill with Some Information and Dates of His Ancestors ..• ," pp.5-7, xerox of the handwritten original, CHD; and Times arid Seasons, 3, pp. 844-45, and 4, pp. 174-75 and 302. 7. "Life Sketch." The Record of Members for the Eighth Ward, Salt Lake Stake, as well as Mrs. James' letter to John Taylor of December 27, 1844, states that she.was baptized and confirmed into the Church on October 14, 1843. This date is clearly in error, for the records on Church members arriving in Nauvoo (cited below in footnote 10) state that she and several relatives had received recommends testifying to their standing within the Church on September 10, 1843. They could not have secured such recommends without having been baptized into the Church. Since Mrs. James reported that she was a member of the Church for about a year before her departure for Nauvoo, it appears that she was baptized in 1842, possibly on the October 14 date that she gave. The Record of Members also states that Mrs. James' brother, Isaac L. Manning, was baptized into the Church by Albert Merrill in December of an undesignated year. Since Merrill was not converted until December of 1841 and the Mannings had left Connecticut by December of 1843, it appears th~t 159 Isaac L. Manning entered the Church in December of 1842, about two months after his sister had joined. 8. Times and Seasons, 4, p. 302. 9. "Life Sketch"; and Jane E. James to John Taylor, December 27, 1884, published with this article. 10. Record of Members, Nauvoo, 1839-46, under the entry, "Members who came to Nauvoo since July 31, 1843," microfilm copy, GS. Isaac L. and Lucinda Manning are listed as having been received as members on January 15, 1844, Jane F. Manning on January 25, 1844, Angelie Manning on March 4, 1844, and Anthony and Sarah Ann Stebbins on August 5, 1845. The Early Church Information File reveals that Angeline and Jane Manning, together with Anthony and Sarah Stebbins, received blessings at the hands of Patriarch Hyrum Smith on March 4, 1844, several months before his death. 11. "Life Sketch"; Eighth Ward, Salt Lake Stake, Record of Members, Early - 1905, p. 84; and Ibid., Journal History, June 21, 1847. 12. A list of the emigrants, arranged by "tens," "fifties," and "hundreds," can be found in Journal History, June 21, 1847. Details of the journey have been taken from the account contained in a record entitled Emigration, Vol. I, 1831-1848, CHD. These Emigration vo,]_umes are unpaginated but are organized chronologically by company of emigrants. 13. The following reminiscence was found among the WPA Biographical Sketches (All88) at the Utah State Historical Society. There is nothing in the file to indicate when, where, or by whom the information was given. Jame Elizabeth James came to Utah Sept. 22, 1847 and camped on the temple block fixing their wagons in a circle around them. First had a house built in the center of the block north of the Temple block for four years and then moved one-half a mile from Liberty Park and lived for sixteen years by the Theatre before they went down to live at Libe~ty Park. She used to go down and get milk off Isaac Chase's wife, Elizabeth. When she had not one thing in the house to eat and felt very bad at having to beg milk but had to do so for the sake of her little child. The mill was built by Isaac Chase and called the Chase Mill. Then i[t] was sold to Brigham Young. 14. As quoted in Kate B. Carter, The Story of the Negro Pioneer (Salt Lake City: Utah Printing Company for the Daughters of the Utah Pioneers, 1965), pp. 9-10. 160 15. 1850 Federal Census, Utah Territory, p. 56, microfilm copy, GS. 16. 28 households in the First Ward held more property than did the Jameses, while 18 held less, and three others held the same amount. [Salt Lake City Assessment Rolls, 1856 Volume, 1st Ward, Office of the Salt Lake City Recorder, Salt Lake City-County Building.] It should be noted that these comparisons furnish only a rough index of relative wealth. They do not take into account the number of working family members, the number of persons that the head of a household supported, or those households that held neither real nor personal property. The city assessment rolls, moreover, would not include property owned outside the city. In evaluating the figures for the period following 1860, it is important to recognize that the First Ward was predominantly rural and relatively underpopulated in comparison with other wards in the city. The wealth of its residents was but a fraction of that of those wards nearer the center of town where the commercial and professional classes settled. 17. Mrs. James listed her children by name in her "Life Sketch," but misplaced punctuation in the revision of the sketch has separated middle from first names and left the number of children unclear. Six Utah-born children are reported in one or more of the federal censuses of 1850, 1860 and 1870. One other child, Isaac, is listed in the Salt Lake Cemetery's Books of the Dead as stillborn on April 22, 1854. The 1860 census gives the family's Utah-born children as Mary Ann, age 12', Miriam, 8, Ellen D., 7, Jesse J., 4, and Vilate, 1. [A two-page compilation of Utah's Black population in 1860, prepared from the census by George Olin. Zabriskie, is located in the subject files of the Utah State Historical Society under "Negroes."] 18. 16 households within the ward owned more property than. the Jameses, while 18 owned less,, [Ibid., Salt Lake City Assessment Rolls, 1860 Volume, 1st Ward.] ~~ 19. "Report of 1st Regiment, 2d Brigade, Nauvoo Legion, Dec. 27, 1861," in "Record of Orders, Returns and Court Martial &c. of 2nd Brigade, 1st Division, Nauvoo Legion," p. 45, typescript copy, GS. 20. Salt Lake County Assessment Rolls, 1861-65 Volumes, 1st Ward, microfilm copies, USA. This description of the James' property holdings should not lead to the conclusion that farming was their major source of family income. The 1860 census and the 1869 directory list Isaac James' occupation as laborer. Given the size of lots in early-day Salt Lake City, eight one-and-a-quarter-acre lots comprising a ten acre block, and the rural nature of the community, many households, whatever the occupation of their heads, cultivated garden plots and maintained domestic farm animals. Moreover, the changing character of Isaac James' personal property during the early 1860s indicates that he engaged in considerable barter or trade. This observation is reinforced by the 1863 tax list, located among the county assessment rolls, which reports that he paid his $6.95 levy in "Cont[r]aband Cash & Scrip." 21. Isaac James to Jane E. James, quit claim deed, recorded May 23, 1870, Book A-4, p. 4, Abstracts of Title Volumes, Office of the Salt Lake County Recorder, Salt Lake City-County Building. Isaac sold the remainder of the family property two years later to Feramorz Little for two hundred dollars. Little was a prominent Mormon businessman and Church leader who was later to serve as mayor of Salt Lake City. [Isaac James to Feramorz Little, quit claim deed, recorded May 17, 1872, ibid.] 22. Eighth Ward, Salt Lake Stake, Record of Members, Early 1905, p. 24. This record indicates that her husband was Frank Perkins. Little is known of his origins, but it seems clear that he arrived in Utah as one of the slaves of Reuben Perkins,who settled in Bountiful, Davis County, as a farmer. [Ibid., Negro Pioneer, p. 28; and Zabriski, "Compilation of the Black Population from the 1860 Federal Census for Utah."] The Relief Society Minute Books for the Eighth Ward list contributors and their donations on a monthly basis throughout the 1870s and early 1880s. Mrs. James is first mentioned as "Sister .Jane Perkins" in the August 20, 1874 entry for receipts. From this date to April 20, 1876 she is listed seven times as "Perkins" and twice (October 20 and November 20, 1875, the next to last entries during the period) as "James." [Eighth Ward, Salt Lake Stake, Relief Society, Minute Book A, 1867-77(Lib. No. C3978), passim.] In the only recorded property transaction that falls within the period, she signed herself as "Jane E. Perkins," and the recorder described her as "Jane Elizabeth Perkins, formerly Jane Elizabeth James." [Jane E. Perkins to E. M. Cort, lease, recorded October 16, 1874, Book B-8, p. 153, Abstracts of Title Volumes.] Mrs. James use of "Perkins" as her surname in business transactions that were a matter of public record demonstrates that her relationship with Frank Perkins was meant to be permanent. 23. "Petition for Sale of Real Estate," subscribed February 19, 1889, Estate of Silas F. James, deed., No. 1204, Third District Court for Salt Lake County, Probate Division. 24. "Final Account and Petition for Final Settlement and Distribution," subscribed April 5, 1889, ibid.; Isaac James to Jane Elizabeth James, quit claim deed, recorded Mar .. 27, 1889, Book B-14, p. 149, Abstracts of Title Volumes; Ei.ghth Ward, Salt Lake Stake, Record of Members, Early - 1905, p. 84; "Isaac James,: Patriarchal Blessing File; and Ibid., Journal History, November 19, 1891. 162 25. Jane E. James to Joseph F. Smith, February 7, 1890, published with this article. 26. Ibid., Journal History, November 19, 1891; and Zina D. H. Young to Joseph F. Smith, January 15, 1894, published with this article. 27. 1870 Federal Census, Utah, Salt Lake County, Salt Lake City, Eighth Ward, p. 10, microfilm copy, G.S. According to the census, taken after Mrs. James had moved from her First Ward homestead, her household included the following relatives: two sons, Silas and Jessie, ages 24 and 15, both working as "laborers"; two daughters, Ellen and Vilate, ages 18 and 11, neither of whom listed an occupation, and a granddaughter, Malvina, age one. 28. Feramorz Little to Jane E. James, quit claim deed, recorded July 13, 1871, Book A-2, p. 244, and Jane E. James to Fermaorz Little, quite claim deed, recorded July 3, 1871, Book A-4, p. 4, Abstracts of Title Volumes. 29. Interview with Mrs. Henrietta Bankhead of Murray, Utah, December, 1972. 30. Salt Lake City Assessment Rolls, 1871-92 Volumes, Eighth Ward. 31. The Minute Books of the Relief Society for the Eighth Ward not only list the amount of individual contributions but designate whether they took the form of cash or sundries. If the contributions were sundries, the records describe the items involved. Throughout the period 1870-1904 more than four-fifths of Mrs. James' contributions are listed as "cash." [Eighth Ward, Salt Lake Stake, Relief Society, Minute Book A., 1867-77 (Lib. No. C3978), Minute Book C, 1879-85 (Lib. No. C3980), Minute Book, 1882 (Lib. No. C3981), Receipt Book, 1894-1902 (Lib. No. C3982), and Minute Book, 1905-13 (Lib. No. C3983R), CHD.] 32. Salt Lake City Assessment Rolls, 1884 Volume, Eighth Ward. 33. Jane Elizabeth Perkins to E. M. Cast, lease, recorded October 16, 1874, and Jane Elizabeth James to Erick M. Cast, lease, recorded September 23, 1879, Book B-8, pp. 153 -and 155, Abstracts of Title Volumes. Some idea of the slight value of this land can be gained from the terms of the original lease. In 1874 Mrs. James leased the property for $15 a year. In 1889 she sold it outright for $500. [W. A. Wiseman to Jane E. James, receipt of part purchase, recorded February 11, 1889, and Jane Elizabeth James to William A. Wiseman, warranty deed, recorded May 24, 1889, Book B-14, p. 149, . Abstracts of Title Volumes.] 163 34. 1880 Federal Census, Salt Lake County, Salt Lake City, 8th Ward, p. 28, microfilm copy, GS. This census listed Mrs. James' occupation as "laundress .. " The household was reported to include Mrs. James and two grandchildren. One of these was Malvina Robinson, age ten, a daughter of Miriam James Robinson, then deceased. Malvina had been listed as a member of Mrs. James' household in the 1870 census. The parentage of the other grandchild, Jessie James, age five months in the 1880 census, cannot be determined. 35. Robert W. Sloan, ed., Utah Gazetteer and Directory •.• 1884 (Salt Lake City: Herald Printing and Publishing Company, 1884); Salt Lake City Directory •.. 1885 (New York: U.S. Directory Publishing Company, n.d.); Lorenzo Stenhouse, ed., Utah Gazetteer and Directory •.• 1888 (n.p.); and R. L. Polk and Company, Salt Lake Citv Directory, 1893 and 1894-95 volumes (published annually in Salt Lake City since 1890, except for single volumes covering the years 189192 and ·1894-95). 36. "Historical Sketch of the Relief Society for the Jubilee," dated March 17, 1892, in Eighth Ward, Salt Lake Stake, Relief Society, Minute Book, 1882. 37. Eighth Ward, Salt Lake Stake, Historical Record, 1856-75 (Lib. No. A7384), CHD; and Eighth Ward, Salt Lake Stake, Relief Society, Minute Book A., 1867-77, Minute Book c, 1879-85, Minute Book, 1882,Receipt Book, 1894-1902, and Minute Book, 1905-13, passllil. 38. Deseret Evening News, April 17, 1911; and statement of Anna Shipp, as reported in Carter, Negro Pioneer, p. 9. 39. "A Reminiscence of Joseph Smith," pp. 128-30. 40. For discussions of Joseph Smith's attitude toward slavery and race, see Stephen G. Taggart, Mormonism's Negro Policy: Social and Historical Origins (Salt Lake City: University of Utah Press, 1970), passim, and Dennis L. Lythgoe, "Negro Slavery and Mormon Doctrine," Western Humanities Review, 2 (Autumn 1967): 329-30. Lythgoe, following William L. Mulder, "The Mormons in American History" (21st Annual Reynolds Lecture, Salt Lake City: University of Utah), 48, No. 11, January 14, 1957), argues that Joseph Smith was a "gradualist" on the slavery question. Smith's policy of compensated emancipation placed him to the right of William Lloyd Garrison and others who proposed immediate and complete emancipation. Within the context of American politics in 1844, however, even gradual emancipation was a quite radical proposal. It had been only seven years, for instance, since Elijah P. Lovejoy had been murdered for his abolitionist stand in Alton, Illinois, and it is doubtful that any form of abolitionism had gained significant support in the state since that time. 164 41. Note the suggestion contained in the letter of A ·us M. Cannon to Jane E. James, June 16, 1888, published with this article. 42. Jane E. James to Joseph F. Smith, February 7, 1890, published with this article. 43. In a letter of September 5, 1885, relating to Temple ordinances for members of the Church who were Black, Joseph E. Taylor, acting president of Salt Lake Stake reported personal knowledge of several specific cases in which Blacks or Mulattos had received their endowments. [Taylor to John Taylor and George Q. Cannon, Joseph E. Taylor MSS, CHD.] Elijah Able was another Black who made repeated requests without success for his endowments. [Joseph F. Smith Journals, May 28, 1879, Joseph F. Smith Collection, Box 41, CHD; and entries for Council Meetings of January 2, 1902 and August 26, 1908, "Excerpts from the Weekly Council Meetings of the Quorum of the Twelve Apostles, Dealing with the Rights of Negroes in the Church, 1849-1940," George Albert Smith Papers, UU.] 44. Entry for Council Meeting of January 2, 1902, "Excerpts from the Weekly Council Meetings ... ," published with this article. 45. Deseret Evening News, April 21, 1908. 46. Mary Ann Robinson, under date of April 9, 1871, and Mariam [sic] Williams, under date of December 8, 1874, Books of the Dead. 47. Deseret Evening News, March 4, 1897. 48. Silas F. James, under date of May 17,1872, and Jessie J. James, under date of May 22, 1894, Books of the Dead; and Ibid., Salt Lake City Directory, 1894-95 Volume. 49. Data for this statistic were compiled from census reports and Church membership lists for the families of Sylvester James, Miriam Williams, and Mary Ann Robinson. An even grimmer statistic might be compiled if information on the families of Mrs. James' children were more complete, for in her "Life Sketch," she states. that but ei~ht of her eighteen grandchildren were then living. SO. "Life Sketch"; Ibid. ,"A Reminiscence of Joseph Smith,'' p. 128. 51. Eighth Ward, Salt Lake Stake, Record Members, Early - 1905, Part 2, p. 7; and Deseret Evening News, April 17, 1911. 52. Ibid., Salt Lake City Directory, 1894-95 to 1906 Volumes. 53. The Third District Court for Salt Lake County, in a case involving the settlement of Mrs. James' estate, issued the following statement as a portion of its findings of fact: "During the lifetime of said Jane Elizabeth James and up to a few years before her death she and her said brother, Isaac L. Manning, constantly worked and practically made their own living." [Sylvester James v. Ellen M. McLean, No. 10219, Third District Court for Salt Lake County, Civil Division.] 54. Ibid., "Findings of Fact and Conclusions of Law." 55. Eighth Ward, Salt Lake Stake, Relief Society, Record of Disbusements, 1908-15 (Lib. No. C3984R), passim. I t is a testimony to Mrs. James' faith and generosity that in 1904-05, while she was receiving occasional aid from the Relief Society, she still made intermittent cash contributions to the organization. [Eighth Ward, Salt Lake Stake, Relief Society, Minute Book, 1905-13, entries under "Receipts for the Year 1904" and "Receipts for the Year 1905."] 56. "Findings of Fact and Conclusions of Law," James v. McLean, No. 10219, Third District Court for Salt Lake County, Civil Division, and Deseret Evening News, April 16, 1908. 57. Jane E. James to Marion [sic] Williams, quit claim deed, recorded May 29, 1872, Book A~2, p. 244, Joseph Williams, by Leonard G. Hardy, to Tracy A. Hardy, certificate of sale, recorded February 9, 1889, Book B-2, p. 36, and Jane Elizabeth James to Estella Elizabeth Williams, Josephine Williams,· and Lucretia Emeline Williams, warranty deed, recorded January 8, 1890, Book B-2, p. 217, Abstracts of Title Volumes. 58. This conclusion is drawn from the various complaints and the findings of fact filed in the case of James v. McLean, No. 10219, Third District Court for Salt Lake County, Civil Division. The following property transactions tend to substantiate the conclusions of the court: Jane E. James to Ellen M. Wallace, warranty deed, recorded June 5, 1886; Wallace to James, lease, recorded July 16, 1886; Wallace and James to David Woodmansee, mortgage, recorded October 1, 1887; and Wallace and James to John A. Williams, mortgage, reocrded January 5, 1888, Book A-10, p. 211; and Wallace to James, warranty deed, recorded April 21, 1888, Book A-10, p. 279,.Abstracts of Title Volumes. The case of James v. McLean involved a disputed deed to Mrs. James' Eighth Ward homesite. Mrs. James had deeded the homesite for no financial consideration to her daughter Ellen in 1907, after having made a will in 1905 that left the property as a life estate to her brother, Isaac L. Manning. Following Mrs. James' death and the reading of her will, her son Sylvester challenged the validity of the deed, charging that his sister Ellen had obtained it fraudulently. The court ruled for 166 Sylvester, taking note of Mrs. James' infirm condition, Ellen's failure to claim the property before her mother's death, and her previous manipulations of her mother's property. 59. One of her great-grandaughters note that she was "very particular and fussy" in preparing for church or other public occasions. [Statement of Mrs. Henrietta Bankhead, as quoted in Ibid., Carter, Negro Pioneer, p. 9.] 60. "Life Sketch." 61. A compilation of statistics for Utah's Black population, broken down by counties for the period 1850-1960, can be found in Margaret Judy Maag, "Discrimination Against the Negro and Institutional Efforts to Eliminate It," (M.A. thesis, University of Utah, 1970), pp. 103-4. 62. 1870 Federal Census, Utah Territory, Salt Lake County. The families that are listed one after another and henc~ apparently lived side by side were those of Miles Litchford and Green Flake, residing in South Cottonwood, Samuel Chambers and Edward Lagrove [Leggroan], residing in Salt Lake City's First Ward, and Samuel Bankhead and James Valentine, residing in the city's Nineth Ward. 63. Salt Lake County Assessment Rolls, 1872-78 Volumes, Salt Lake City, Eighth Ward. The families were those of Samuel Chambers, Ned Lagrone [Leggroan], and Joseph Williams. The latter was Mrs. James' son-in-law. 64. Ibid., 1876-77 Volumes, South Cottonwood, and 1878-84 Volumes, Union; and 1880 Federal Census, Utah Territory, Salt Lake County, Union, pp. 19-20. The families holding property in this area were Green and Abram Flake, Daniel Freeman, Miles Litchford, and George Stevens, and the boarder holding property was Mark Wales. 65. In this respect it is significant to recognize that the only apparent area in which Utah legalized and institutionalized racial discrimination was that of marriage between Blacks and whites. The territorial slave code of 1851 included a provision against sexual intercourse between Blacks and whites, and this feature of race relations caught the attention of such astute observers of the Utah scene as Richard F. Burton and Jules Remy. [Dennis L. Lythgoe, "Negro Slavery in Utah," Utah Historical Quarterly, 39(Winter,1971): 51-52, and "Negro Slavery in Utah," (M.A. thesis,. University of Utah, 1966), pp. 75-86.] In the 1880s, the1 Church refused to solemnize marriages between whites and Polynesians. [Joseph E. Taylor to John Taylor, September 5 and November 5, 1885, Joseph E. Taylor MSS, CHD; and John Taylor and George Q. Cannon to Joseph E. Taylor, September 7, 1885, and John Taylor to Joseph E. Taylor, November 20, 1885, John Taylor Letterpress Copybooks, CHD.] Utah's first statute on marriage, 167 passed in 1888 by a predominantly Mormon legislature and signed into law by a Gentile governor, pr'ohibited marriages between whites and Blacks, and between whites and uMongolians." [Mormon Legislation Against Polygamy," untitled four-page sheet, GHD). 66. William Henry James to Sylvester Perkins, warranty deed, recorded October 30, 1893, Book B-9, p. 54, Abstracts of.Title Volumes; Ibid .. , Carter, Negro Pioneer, pp. 28-30; and "Statement for F;inal Account and Petition for Distribution," Estate of Sylvester James, deed .. , No. 111,.64, Third District Court for Salt Lake County, .Probate Division, USA. 67 .. 1870 Federal Census, Utah Territory, Salt Lake County, S~lt Lake City, First Ward, pp. 1 and 4. 68. Feramorz Little to Ned Legroc [Leggroan], quit claim deed, recorded :May 27, 1871, Book A-2, p~ 244, and Ned and Susan Leggrove [Leggroan] to Herrmann Hill, warranty deed, recorded November 18, 1879, Book AOlO, p. 31, Abstracts of Title Volumes; Salt Lake County Assessment Rolls, 1872-80 Volumes, Salt Lake City, Eighth Ward, 1878 Volume, South Cottonwood, 1880-83 Volumes, Butler; Ibid., Carter, NegroPioneer,, pp. 30 and 50-51; and Ibid., Salt La"k:;City Directory, 1908-20 Volumes. The marriages united Esther Jane James and Henry Leggroan, and Nettie James and Lou;is Leggroan. 69. Undated petition, signed by members of the Afro.-American Republican Club of Salt Lake City in support of Elias H. Parsons for United States Marshal, Record Group 46, Senate Nomination Papers, 5lst Congress, " E. H. Parsons," National l\xchives. The newspaper was The Broad AX, 'edited by Jul;i.us F. Taylor and Deomocratic in its political orientation. . [J. Cecil Alter, Early Utah. Journalism (Salt Lake City: Utah State Historical Society, 1938), p. 274; and Salt Lake City Directory, 1896-99 Volumes.] The 1891-92 city directory. contains the first listing for a predominantly Black congregation, Methodist in affiliation. The congregation is listed in the directory during the remaining years of. the nineteenth century, but the frequent changes in address and pastor suggest that it had yet to obtain a permanent structure and location for services. The first predominantly Black Baptist congregation was formed in 1896 by a group of women who met in private homes. It was only after the turn of the·twentieth century that this congregation secured a permanent site and building. The Methodist congregation eventually became the African Methodist .Episcopal Church and later Trinity Methodist Church, while the Baptist congregation became Calvary Baptist Church. (Interview with Mrs. Mignon Barker Richmond of Salt Lake City, December, 1972.) 70.Althoughabsence from the family household obscured the last twenty years of Isaac James' life, before his departure the census and city directory listed his occupation as laborer, and during his early years in Utah he had been a farmer. His eldest son, Sylvester, lived past the age of 80, and at the time of his death in 1920 he owned realty and water rights that were valued at twenty-five hundred dollars. In the late nineteenth century his occupation had been listed alternately as a farmer, gardener, and laborer. (Estate of Sylvester James, deed., No. 11164, Third District Court for Salt Lake County, Probate Division.) The second son, Silas, died in 1872 at age 25, owning five acres of land on the East Bench of Salt Lake City, the value of which was no more than a few hundred dollars at best. The 1870 census listed his occupation as laborer. (Estate of Silas F. James, deed., No. 1204, Third District Court for Salt Lake County, Probate Division.) The third son, .Jessie, died in 1894 at age 37. Living at his mother's home most of his life, he apparently accumulated no property while working as a laborer a.nd porter. 71. Salt Lake County Assessment Rolls, 1872--78 Volumes, Salt Lake City, Eighth Ward, 1876-77 Volumes, South Cottonwood, and 1878-84 Volumes, Union. 72. In this respect, impressions gained from research on the James family have been reinforced by -a discussion with William Hartley of the Church Historical Department who has been studying the family of Samuel Chambers, another early-day black settler. 73. Mrs. Jamesv children appear to have been raised in the Church, if the experience of her youngest daughter is typical of that of the other children in the family. (Deseret Evening Ne\,;rs, March 4, 1897). Her eldest son, Sylvester, remained a member of the Church until 1885, when he was excommunicated for "unchristianlike conduct," a vague charge that could cover a multitude of greater and lesser offenses. He never returned to the Church thereafter. (First Ward, Salt Lake Stake, Record of Members, Early - 1904 (Lib. No. 6578), p. 14, microfilm copy, CHD) Her youngest son, Jessie, was baptized into the Church at an early age, but seems to have been inactive as a member until less than a year before his death, when he was rebaptized. (Eighth Ward, Salt Lake Stake, Record of Members, Early - 1905, Pt. 2, p. 9.) 74. The formation of the "Genesis Group" may indicate that the Mormon Church now recognizes a need for institutions to serve its Black constituency. This group, with its o~-rn Black officers, was formed in October, 1971 as an auxiliary organization for Black Mormons throughout the Salt Lake Valley. [Deseret Evening News, October 23, 1971.] 169 75. Interpretations in this paragraph are based on the figures furnished in Maag, Margaret J., "Discrimination Against the Negro," (Unpublished Master's thesis, University of Utah, 1971), 103-4. 76. The documents printed here are full and exact copies of the originals, except in the case of "Excerpts from the Weekly Council ';Meetings of the Quorum of the Twelve Apostles, Dealing with the Rights of Negroes in the Church, 1849-1940," in which sections relating to Mrs. James have been abstracted from the main body of the manuscript. In cases where punctuation, letters, or words have been added to the documents to clarify the meaning, the additions are noted through the use of brackets. The differences between the spelling and punctuation used in the three letters signed by Mrs. James suggest that these manuscripts, though handwritten, were dictated by her to friends who served as scribes. 77. Endowments are a religious ordinance and Temple ceremonies that in the nineteenth century could be performed for the Latter-day Saint as a·sign of worthiness on such special occasions as entrance into marriage or departure on a mission. 78. Early Church records indicate that the Manning party· left Connecticut in 1843, hence•the figure here should be forty-one instead of forty-two years. See comments on pp. 2-3. 79. For a discussion of church policy regarding the Law of Adoption in the late nineteenth century, see James R. Clark, ed., Messages of the First Presidency, 3 (Salt Lake City: Bookcraft, 1966),pp.252-60. 80. George Q. Cannon and Joseph F. Smith--members of theFirst Presidency of the Latter-day Saint Church and respectively first and second counselors to President John Taylor. 81. A search of the official letterbooks for Jahn Taylor, held by the Church Historical Department, has revealed no reply to this letter. '82. In this respect,' notice the following extract from a letter of William I. Appleby, written from Batavia, New York, on June 2, 1847: At this place I found a colored brother by the name of Lewis, a barber and an Elder in the Church, ordained by William Smith. This Lewis I am also informed has a son who is married to a white girl and both are members of the Church there. Now, dear brother, I wish to know if this is the order of God or tolerated, to ordain Negroes to the Priesthood and allow- amalgamation. If it is, I desire to know it, as I have yet to learn it. [Quoted in Lythgoe, "Negro Slavery and Mormon Doctrine," p. 334, and 170 cited as Journal History., June 2, 184 7.] 83. A search of the letterbooks of Joseph F. Smith, held by the Church Historical Department, has revealed no reply to this letter. 84. The use of the "curse of Cain" concept as a theological justification for denying Black Mormons the priesthood and Temple ordinances was common throughout the late nineteenth and early twentieth centures. For further evidence on this point, see the following: "Excerpts from the Weekly Council Meetings ..• Dealing with the Rights of Negroes in the Church, 1849-1940"; Abraham H. Cannon Journals, October 1, 1890, and March 29, 1892, xerox copies UU; Heber J. Grant Journals, October 1, 1890, CHD; and Joseph F. Smith, John R. Winder, and Anthon H. Lund to David McKay, March 16, 1904, Joseph F. Smith Letterpress Copybooks (MSS f259, Reel5), CHD. 85. A search of the letterbooks of Joseph F. Smith, held by the Church Historical Department, has revealed no reply to this letter. 7 86~ Although the "Life Sketch" may have been dictated originally in 1893, internal evidence strongly suggests that it was later revised and updated. For example, the "Life Sketch" mentions Lorenzo Snow and Joseph F. Smith as presidents of the Latter-day Saint Church, but these men did not assume this position until 1898 and 1901. Mrs. James also states in the "Life Sketch" that but two of her children were then living, yet four of her children were alive in 1893, one of these dying in 1894 and another in 1897. 87. Crossed out in the original. The Eighth Ward Record Members originally listed Mrs. James' mother as "Filles Abbott" but this was later replaced by "Eliza Mead," which corresponds with the listing furnished for Isaac L. Manning, her brother. The Patriarchal Blessing File listed her mother as "Phillis Manning," which corresponds with the head of a free Black household listed in the 1830 census for Wilton, Connecticut, Mrs. James' birthplace. 88. One of Mrs. James' brothers was Isaac Lewis Manning, and it appears that the person who transcribed the sketch erred in placing a comma between the names "Isaac" and "Lewis." 89. Early Church records indicate that the Manning party left Connecticut in 1843 rather than 1840. See connnents on pp. 2~3. 90. "and would not take us farther"--·added, as an insertion between the lines, to the text of the document. 91. "after"--added, as an insertion between the lines, to the text of the document. 92. "Dr. Bernhisel "--refers to John M. Bernhisel, prom::tnent 171 churchman who later served as Utah's delegate to Congress. 93. In this respect, the following notice from the Nauvoo Neighbor of December 6, 1843, is pertinent: LOST ABOUT six weeks ago a company of saints arrived in this place escorted by Elder Wanda! who had in his charge a trunk belonging to Jane Elizabeth Manning: - Sister Manning was not here then but has since arrived and can obtain no intelligence of her trunk; it is presumed that some one has got it in mistake as there was a number of passengers arrived at the same time. The trunk is about three feet long and covered with a light red hair skin, with the exception of the back, on which there is some white. It is directed to 'Jane Elizabeth Manning, Nauvoo.' Whoever will give such information as shall lead to the discovery of the trunk will be handsomely rewarded by applying to this office. Nauvoo, Dec. 6, 1843. 94. "Urim and Thumim"--believed by the Latter-day Saints to have been used by Joseph Smith in translating the original Book of Mormon. 95. "Calhoon"--perhaps Reynolds Cahoon, prominent churchman and resident of Nauvoo. 96. "Keg Creek"--probably written originally as Hog Creek and inaccurately transcribed in the revision of the sketch for the Journal History of June 21, 1847 lists Silas' birthplace as Hog Creek. 97. Mrs. James' youngest son is listed in censuses, city directories, and church records as either "Jessie J." or "Jessie Boan," and it appears that the person who transcribed the sketch may have erred in placing commas between "Jessie" and "Jerry," and "Jerry" and "Beam." 98. Kate B. Carter, in her Story of the Negro Pioneer (pp. 34-35), furnishes several accounts of a Black man named Isaac who served as Brigham Young's coachman, and she designates him as one of the slaves originally owned by Thomas Bedford Graham. The 1850, 1860, and 18701 censuses, however, fail to list any slaves belonging to Graham or any Blacks named Isaac Graham. In fact, only one Black man whose first name is Isaac is listed in any of these censuses, and he is Isaac James. Hence, taking Mrs. James' statement into consideration, it is possible that her husband may have worked as Brigham Young's coachman. 99. The portion of the was originally added to the The year of birth furnished all of which place the year text placed in parentheses at this point document as an insertion between the lines. here agrees with none of the earlier records, between 1818 and 1822. 172 100. The portion of the text placed in parentheses at this point was originally added to the document as an insertion between the lines. 101. Same as above. 102. Same as above&